Catch Me If You Can
by outlook96
Summary: Emily Taylor is finally living the dream. Sort of. She has moved in with her best friend, she attends NYU and she is constantly working at a local café and bistro. Her schedule is pretty much the same, until a certain Peter Parker walks into her life. Everything changes from one simple smile, from an extremely complex boy, who is a man of many masks. Set Post-TASM2 movie-verse.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! I hope you enjoy this story, which I fully intend to finish. Please let me know your thoughts on the chapter. I do not own spider-man nor do I won any of the characters, only my OC Emily. I'm new to the spider-man universe but I plan to follow the movies, post TASM2 of course. Thanks for reading, enjoy :)**

* * *

"Em, get up!" The sound of my roommate's voice sent me toppling off my bed. "You have work."

I rolled my eyes, groaning as I did so. Work was something I definitely wasn't looking forward to... After starting school at NYU Tisch School of Arts last month, work completed the overwhelming bundle.

This day was going to be long... Excruciatingly long… To start it off I had recently been informed that my alarm clock wasn't working, and now I would have to invest in a new one. Not only that, I was currently running late for work. And after a long night out with my roommate Sam, I was in dying need of a shower, which I didn't have time for.

I sprung up from the dirty white carpets of my bedroom floor, dusting myself off, and ran to the washroom. After putting my hair up in a neat bun, letting a few curls fall in front of my face, I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and slipped into my work gear.

After yelling a quick goodbye to Sam I headed out the door, locking the apartment we shared on the way out.

After sprinting down a few flights of stairs I ran to the car Sam and I shared, deciding it would be quicker to take this. I had 10 minutes to get to work, and hopefully with my luck, I could make it there in time.

But of course, as soon as I turned off of our abandoned apartment street and on to the main road, I was caught in the busy traffic of New York. I groaned, slamming my fist against the steering while, which beeped to my surprise. I jumped, startling myself but then looked ahead.

The traffic seemed to go on forever, and I was too far ahead to turn back now and take the subway.

I couldn't help thinking about the last month, as I was stuck in this horrendous traffic. I had finally moved out of my parents house in queens and moved in with my best friend, Sam. My parents wanted to do a lot of traveling for the next few years, and I wanted to stay home. So it was the perfect opportunity for Sam and I to move in, which any teenage best friends could dream off.

It was a little stressful at first, but after finding our small, quant, 2000$ a month little apartment, we were settled. Since Sam and I were both studying at the same school, we were together a lot, which helped. And we both worked, which helped us afford the car and the apartment. We started school last month, and my parents left the same time. Since I was an only child, my parents thought it was the perfect opportunity to travel. My dad worked at Oscorp for a while, and my mom was a nurse, but they had taken a temporary leave and wouldn't be back for a while.

We were finally moving, after eight minutes of waiting. I literally had two minutes to get to work, which was near impossible. After driving as fast as I could, without irritating the driver in front of me, I parallel parked in front of the Bean's and Cream Bistro, putting my apron on before I stepped through the doors.

I ran as fast as I could, trying to get to the back to clock in without being seen by my manager, Katherine.

After clocking in at 11:08am, I did a little happy dance, then made my way to the front cash to help the barista's.

"EMILY!" I heard a yell from the back, followed by the ground shaking footsteps of my manager. "Tardy again, are we?"

"I'm sorry!" I exclaimed, "My alarm clock broke, and then there was traffic. It won't happen again, I promise!"

The forty-year old shook her head, her medium length red hair following with it. "Don't make promises you can't keep Ms. Taylor."

"Please," I put my hands together, intertwining them, "I need this job. It seriously won't happen again, I'm sorry!"

She rolled her eyes, placing a hand on her hip. "You're lucky I like you," She started to pivot, "And you're lucky I don't want to go through the work and training of hiring someone new." She walked away, sighing.

I grinned, turning to my coworker Clark, who gave me a small smirk.

After helping out my regular's, offering coffee top off's and making a few sandwiches, It was finally time for my break. This eleven till six shift was killing me. I ended up calling my parents, who were visiting some relatives in England. They told me about the recent postcard they sent, and that it would arrive in the mail soon. After hearing about their adventures I hung up.

I sipped my coffee, enjoying the last few minutes of my break, when something caught my eye. The Daily Bugle was placed on top of the break room table, with Spiderman on it. It wasn't a recent picture, probably from five months ago, when he was last seen.

It was titled,

**STILL NO SPIDERMAN?**

And the article underneath explained its justice for the title. Nobody was really sure what sparked the sudden disappearance of Spiderman, or why he wasn't saving people anymore.

The last time he was seen was when Electro came forward, an Oscorp experiment gone wrong. After he was defeated by the infamous Spiderman, he disappeared.

"EM!" I heard from the other room.

I rolled my eyes, that wa a signal my break was done. "Coming, Kat." I responded, dropping The Daily Bugle back on the table.

I quickly strided back to my workplace, taking place as the barista for the next few hours of my shift.

After Kat left at four, I instantly felt relaxed. That woman was fastidious, but she reeked of stress. All. The. Time.

After working as the barista for a while, I decided to do another coffee run, topping off some customer's cups. I made my way through half of the store, even helping all the customers that sat outside, when I noticed a familiar face.

The familiar face sat by the entrance of the store, gazing out the window, at, essentially, nothing. His bronze hair was messily brushed out of his face, and his heady was slung over his head, which made it hard to see him. He sat by himself, holding the white mug in his hand, while he clutched his skateboard with the other hand.

The way he held it made it seem like he was in a rush, urging to finish his coffee so he could skate out of here, but his posture spoke differently. He seemed quite content actually. Content, but also depressed. The way he stared out that window, with that glum expression, it made me feel sad inside.

What was this familiar boy's name again? My tongue pressed against the roof of my mouth and I dug deep into my brain.

I had graduated with this boy a few months ago.

It was Peter. Peter Parker.

Now I remembered everything. That was Gwen Stacy's boyfriend. That's why he was so seemingly depressed. Gwen had died a few months ago, supposedly getting into a mishap with Electro a few months back.

I felt bad for him, truly. The look of dismay on his face was heartbreaking. I remember when Gwen had given her graduation speech at our graduation, and Peter came in when he was called to receive his diploma, but instead of shaking hands with her he gave his girlfriend a passionate kiss, that sent the whole grad class howling and cheering for them.

I was never close with Gwen, I hardly ever spoke a word to her, but from what I heard she was an amazing young lady. I was never close with Peter either, he was in a few of my classes and I for sure had never spoken a single word to him.

Peter must have despised Spiderman, for not saving the one person that truly mattered to him, besides his Aunt.

"There you go," I said, topping off a young woman's coffee. Instead of circling around the store I made my way to him.

"Top off?" I offered, holding up the fresh pot.

"Hmm?" His dark brown eyes peered up at me, and he pulled a pair of headphones out of his ear. I finally got a good look at him, and his eyes were completely lonesome. The glint had revealed a whole world of darkness .

I bit my lip, feeling my heart wrench even more. "Top off?" I offered again.

He didn't respond, just stared at me. At first I had to check that he wasn't still wearing his headphones, but I was positive he was not now. I waited another few seconds but he still didn't respond. Not knowing what to say, I repeated the words, "Top off?"

It was like he was in some other world. He shook himself back to reality. "Oh, sorry, uh," He shook his head, "No thank you."

I gave him a small smile, too shy to say anything in case he didn't remember me from school, and made my way to the next table.

I couldn't help but feel the pair of brown eyes on my back.

* * *

The next few weeks flew by quickly. My classes were hectic and stressful, work was busy. I worked the same days, every week. Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, and occasionally Saturday's. I only went to school Monday Tuesday Thursday, and Wednesday I just had a morning class.

My schedule was pretty much the same, and Sam and I continued to have movie nights every Friday night, the only thing that had changed about my life was the new regular at Beans and Cream.

Every Friday morning, Peter Parker ordered a small coffee, double double, and sat in the same seat, beside the large windows. I never had the chance to talk to him, but I decided to now.

After doing a round of top off's I headed to him, leaving him for last. I always offered to top him off, but not once had he said yes. Until now.

"Top off?"

He pulled the headphones out of his ear, just like he did every time. "Uh," He licked his lips, "Sure."

I smiled, and pulled out two packets of sugar and two creams from my apron.

"Thanks." He mumbled, picking up the cream.

I smiled once more, then turned to walk back to cash. Something drew me back to him though. For the first time in a few weeks, I pivoted and opened my mouth to talk.

"You're Peter, right?"

He looked up at me, and pulled the hood off of his head. "Yeah." The corner of his lip quirked up and he almost smiled. **Almost.**

"I'm Emily," I held a hand out, introducing myself. "Emily Taylor."

He took it, shaking it lightly. "I know."

He knew my name? How did he know me? Peter wasn't the most popular kid in high school, but neither was I. I mostly hung around Sam and her boyfriend at the time.

"How are you today?" He asked politely.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "Isn't the worker supposed to ask the customer that?"

His shoulders shrugged slightly, "You seemed deep in thought."

I huffed a small laugh. "I'm fine thank you, just waiting for my shift to be over. Then I'm going to venture out on my wondrous quest of alarm clock shopping."

"Alarm clock shopping" He raised his bushy eyebrows.

I nodded, "Yep, alarm clock shopping."

"Interesting" He sipped his coffee, a smile hidden beneath his lips.

"Oh contraire, it is not that interesting."

He smirked, bringing the mug to his lips.

"How are you today?" I asked, before thinking. He was probably the same as any other day. Miserable. Depressed. Disheartened.

"Alright," He replied with, "Just enjoying my day off from school."

I nodded, "Nice—"

"EMILY BACK TO WORK."

I rolled my eyes, feeling Kat's venomous glare on my back.

Once again, Peter smirked.

"Well, duty calls." I gave him a small wave, which he returned, then trudged back to my place, dragging my feet as I did so.

The last hour of my shift went by agonizingly unhurried, as it always did.

I saw Peter Parker get up from his usual seat and return the mug to the front counter. He turned to exit, but then paused at the doors. I watched his moves as I helped a customer at cash.

His eyes locked with mine for a few seconds, and he smiled.

For the first time in the past few weeks, I saw Peter Parker smile.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hell to my 4 favourtiers and 7 followers! Thanks for reading :) Please let me know what you think by reading and reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter. Let me know what you would like to see throughout this story! Thanks!**

* * *

It was a simple, closed mouth smile, but for the rest of the day I couldn't help but think about it. It was the first time I had seen him remotely happy, and that was nice to see. This boy was living in a world of obscurity, and he had came out of it for a few seconds there.

When my shift was over at five o'clock, half an hour after Peter left, I changed back into my normal clothes in the back room then exited the bistro. I stepped into the busy sidewalk and merged into the traffic of people. The cold November air sent shivers throughout my body.

I didn't have the car today, because normally Sam needed it on Friday's.

My feet led me to a small corner store, which mostly sold tourist merchandise. The bell rung when I placed my feet through the door. I gave the store owner a quick hi, then travelled down the a particular isle.

There were a few clocks, some digital, and some analog. Most of them had "I 3 NY" on them. Typical.

I picked up an analog one, with I 3 NY in the middle.

"That one looks pretty good." Someone mumbled behind me. A head reached out to the shelf to pull out a smaller digital clock, with big red numbers displayed. My eyes trailed along the persons arm up to their face.

It was Peter.

I stared dumb founded, but a slow smile spread across my face. "Not bad." I responded.

"Hey," Peter retorted, "I'm an expert alarm clock shopper, trust me."

I rolled my eyes with a mile, "Oh I'm sure you are." I snatched the clock from his hands, got a good look at it, and shrugged. This would do. He trailed behind me as I made my way to the front cash, paying 4.95$ for it.

I watched him pick up a chocolate milk from one of the coolers and pay for it.

It was awkward, I didn't know whether to wait for him, as if we were going to chat more, or walk out without saying anything else. I pretended to fiddle with something in my jacket pocket, making it seem like I was trying to find something in case our conversation did come to an end.

To my surprise he stopped beside me, putting the change in his pocket.

We walked out together and turned left; luckily we were going the same way. We didn't say anything for a few seconds; just let our footsteps match up to the same step.

"So where are you headed to?" He asked, screwing the lid off of his chocolate milk.

"My apartment. My roommate and I are going to have a movie night, like we do every Friday." I stared at my feet as I walked; not wanting to look into this boy's lost eyes again.

"Oh that's cool, do you live in a dorm room, or—?"

I shook my head, looking ahead of me. "We rent an apartment together. I do go to school though."

"Interesting. Where at?"

"A branch off of NYU, Tisch School of arts. I'm studying film, media arts, acting, all that fun stuff."

I could feel his eyes burn into my side, but I continued to look ahead. "Are you going to school?"

I could see him nod in my peripheral, "I'm hoping to get a BS in Engineering Physics at ESU."

"That's awesome!" I replied with, not knowing what else to say.

He didn't reply but she assumed he was nodding.

Something popped into my mind at that moment. "I thought you were going to England or something though? I— I heard somewhere that you were going to school there." That was possibly the only thing I had ever heard about Peter Parker at Midtown, besides his mishaps with the school's bully Flash last year.

There was a long, awkward silence, before he replied with "Change of plans." His voice was careful, and monotone.

That was when I became aware of the boundary I had crossed over. Clearly it was a touchy subject that had some association with Gwen.

I fiddled with my hands in front of me, clasping and unclasping them together. We walked until I reached the entrance to a subway station. "Well, Peter, It was nice catching up with you. " I pointed to the entrance, "But I have to part ways."

Peter stopped walking and paused in front of me, putting his hands into his jacket's pockets. He gave me a small closed-mouth smile, and I finally looked into his disheartened brown eyes. "It was nice. See you soon Emily."

I laughed half-heartedly, and returned the small smile. "See ya, Parker."

* * *

After making a pizza and sitting down on our big L-shaped couch, wrapped in blankets, Sam and I reclined on the sofa and put in Marley and Me.

"I hate this movie…" Sam blurted out. "I've seen it at least ten times and I still cry."

"Hey it was your turn to pick the movie last week. I had to suffer through two hours of saw, so you're ging to have to suffer through this." I retorted.

She rolled her eyes, "Whatever."

"Maybe we should get a dog." I suggested.

"HA." She spat, "Yeah, like we can afford it."

"True." I agreed, nibbling on my pizza.

We watched the movie for a few minutes, until I brought up the topic of Parker. "Guess who I saw today?"

"Who?" She mumbled through a mouthful of food.

"Peter Parker."

She narrowed her eyes at me, her eyebrows knitting into a perfect line. "Peter Parker? Gwen Stacy's boy?"

I nodded.

"_Hmm. _How's he doing?"

I shrugged, "I don't know, really. He's came in quite a bit lately, and he always looks miserable, but today I talked with him for a bit. He seemed kind of happy. Emphasis on kind of."

"Well that's good, I suppose."

"Mhm." I said, attending back to my uneaten pizza.

As expected, we were in tears by the end of the movie. This movie was so heartbreaking that I literally couldn't even look at the DVD case anymore. It was so heart wrenching.

"Like I said," Sam sniffled, "I hate this movie." She pause, "A lot."

I grabbed a tissue and started to wipe my nose. After that, I proceeded to take the movie out of the dvd player, switching it back to TV.

Sam and I said our goodnights, and I was ready to switch the TV off, when I heard something tat caught my attention.

_"… Is Spiderman really back for good? Or is this just a onetime thing?"_

"What the…" Same murmured. She pivoted back to the TV, and turned the volume up on the remote.

We saw clips of a road being blocked off, crowds of people standing behind barricades. This street looked like a war zone. There were five to ten police cars, all lined up to use as shields, and behind them police officer shot at a menacing man in a metal suit.

This man stood fifteen feet tall in his suit. It wasn't something like iron man, either. The suit literally looked like a rhino, only its horn was ready to kill, and its armor was packed with lethal weapons.

"Oh my God."

The video was blurry, probably from someone's own handheld device, but you could still see the destruction that was taking place.

People in the background were chanting Spider-man. Like a prayer.

Astonishingly, a red and blue spandex suit came into view, and there he was saving the day again.

The clip ended and the news returned with a man talking about what this means for New York.

_"Spider-man's back. And all of New York City is praying it's for good. This is Mark Smith, goodnight New York City."_

"Wow." I breathed.

Sam clasped two hands together, holding them up to her face. She batted her eyelashes a few times, then with a sarcastic tone of voice she said. "Wow! Spider-man's back. We're all safe now." And then she rolled her eyes.

"Not a big fan?" I arched a brow.

Her nose crinkled up and he made a fake gagging noise. "Ugh." She clicked the TV off with the remote in her hand, dropping it on the L-Shaped couch. "No. I mean, yeah, he's good for NYC but he ditched us for six months and now he's back. I think we could do just fine without him."

"Maybe he wanted to take a break." I responded, pulling my blanket over my shoulders. "I mean, remember when that Doctor from Oscorp went insane and injected himself with lizard DNA? How could the cops have stopped him then?" I paused, licking my lips. "I like to think he gives people hope."

She shrugged. "I don't know. And I'm too tired to have a debate about it." She yawned.

I gave her a small smirk, and walked down the small hallway where our bedrooms were. "Goodnight Sam."

"Night Em!" She chimed, running into her room.

* * *

The worst thing about your birthday, is having people know its you're birthday.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!" Sam came sprinting in, and took a dive on my bed. I rubbed my eyes and groaned at the sudden awakening. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Emily, happy birthday to you!" She sang.

I sat up, and she took a spot beside me.

She held a small pink bag in her hands, paired with a pink enveloped card.

"Sam, you didn't have to do this…"

"Shut up. I did. So just open the damn card Emma!"

I smiled at her demanding-ness, and obeyed her commands. The card had a sweet heart-felt note that contained all the cute best friend stuff, talking about memories we shared, why I'm her best friend, etc.,

"Thanks Sam," I teared up a little. I put the card down and went in for a hug but she rejected it, pushing me away with her hands.

"Open it!" She squealed, "Open it! Open it!" I chuckled and obliged. I pulled out a very large bag of smarties and a gift certificate to get a manicure and pedicure.

"Don't you just love it? It's the little spa on 34th street that we always pass by!"

Once again, I went in for a hug. It was a long, hearty, hug. I clutched her tight in my arms. My best friend as so sweet. "Thank you so much" I grinned.

"No problem," She hopped off my bed then swatted me, "Now go get ready for work."

Scratch that, the worst thing about your birthday is working on your birthday.

After a minute or two of checking my phone, seeing all the update's about Spiderman being seen again throughout the last week, I dragged myself out of bed. I hated working on Saturday's, especially the morning. It was always so busy. I decided to take the time to make my hair look nice, since Sam had woke me up earlier than expected. I curled my long blonde hair, putting it into a neat ponytail, and then got my work gear on.

"You should have booked it off!" Sam scolded me as I walked out the door.

I had a lot of time before work, so I decided walking would be nice. Besides, Sam needed the car anyways.

After suffering through the cold November air, I finally arrived to work, five minutes ahead of time. I was surprised to see Peter Parker already in his assigned seat. It was early in the morning; he usually didn't come in until mid-afternoon. In fact, this was the third time this week he was here. He was making coffee runs more often.

I got my apron on, and immediately started my round of coffee top-off's, eager to talk to him.

When I finally reached him, he had already yanked the headphones out of his ear. Without asking, I poured some fresh coffee into his mug. "You like this seat, don't you?" I said, narrowing my eyes at him as I tucked a stray strand of hair behind my hair.

"You could say that, yes." He smirked.

"And how is Mr. Parker today?"

"Bored." He replied with.

"No plans to hang out with friends or anything?" I said, pulling two creams out of my pocket.

He shook his head, which caused his hood to fall to his shoulders.

It was pleasant to see his face. He was always so hidden, like he didn't want to be seen, or like he didn't want anyone to talk to him. But that wasn't the case because I talked to Peter quite a lot lately, whenever he came in that is. Unless he only enjoyed talking to me.

"No friends, really."

"And why's that? You're a perfectly pleasant human being."

"I have… trust issues, you could say."

"Hmm." I placed two sugars on the table in front of him. "No school work?"

"Ha!" He scoffed, "Tons. But do I feel like doing it? No."

I gave him a wide smile flashing my dimples.

He looked up at me and just stared, the left corner of his lips slightly quirking up.

"Emily, how many times do I have to tell you? Stop chatting up the customers. Just because it's your birthday doesn't mean you can waste time." God dammit Kat.

"It's your birthday?"

"Sort of."

His bushy brow immediately arched up. "How is it **_sort of _**your birthday?"

I shrugged. "I'm just trying to keep it on the down low if you know what I—"

"Let's go out."

"Excuse me?" I asked, holding the hot coffee pot in the air.

"Let's do something!" He threw his hands in the air. It was the first time I had seen Peter Parker act joyful.

I laughed awkwardly. "No offence, Parker, but umm… I hardly know you."

"So you'll get to know me!"

I didn't know what to say. Part of me wanted to… the other part of me thought that hanging out with Peter Parker might think I'm giving him the wrong idea. I didn't want this to be more than just two friends hanging out…

"Just us two, hanging out?" I gnawed on my lip.

He had a slight closed-lipped smile with his chin tucked tightly underneath him. "It won't be so bad, come on. Just two acquaintances getting to know each other."

"I don't—"

"Ms. Taylor." Kat grumbled.

I rolled my eyes.

Peter chuckled at my reaction. "Meet me when this place closes at nine."

"Peter—"

"EMILY."

"Kat! Give me a few seconds." I threw back at her.

I looked back to Peter who had the funniest expression. His mouth was agape and his eyes darted between me and Katherine, a laugh erupting beneath his lips.

I just gave him a small smile. "So nine?"

"Nine, at the front."

I nodded, sluggishly pivoting back to Kat. The look on her face as priceless. She was fuming; I practically saw the steam escaping through her eyes. It was like a boiling kettle.

I gave her an apologetic smile, but all she said was, "Back to work."

When my shift was done at five, I headed to the little spa on 34th street, using the certificate Sam had gotten me. It was nice, and relaxing. Once I was done I made my way home to Sam, who was waiting with a small homemade cupcake. There was a giant candle on it that had the numbers 1 and 9 on it.

"Ugh! Don't remind me of how old I'm getting," I said, placing my purse on the counter.

"Oh you're getting so old." She rolled her eyes, moving towards me and taking a seat on one of the bar stools in front of the kitchen counter. She lifted a hand to my hair, picking at it. "Is that a grey hair?'

"Shut up!" I laughed, pushing her away.

She giggled with me.

I stuck my finger in the mound of vanilla frosting, tasting it. "Man I needed this. Work was sooooo boring."

"Well, you could say I am the best best friend." She replied, moving around the counter to the sink to wash some dishes.

"Okay, best best friend." I laughed, taking a bite of the cupcake.

"So movies tonight? I was hoping we could go to the theatre and see that new one with Ryan Gosling."

"Actually…" I mumbled, walking the bite in my mouth. "I may have plans…"

She dropped a spoon in the sink, resulting in a loud bang. Her mouth was agape as she leaned against the sink, staring at me with her hawk eyes.

"Plans? With who? Where? Since when did you have other friends!"

"Hey!" I cried, "I have other friends besides you."

She did a big eye roll, then skipped around the counter towards me, taking a seat on the counter in front of me. "You know what I mean. Where are you going?"

I shrugged.

"Who are you going with?"

"P-Peter." I stuttered.

Her mouth was even more agape now. "Parker? Really? Is this like a date or—"

"No, no. Jesus, no. Kat might have slipped that it was my birthday in front of him so he asked me if I wanted to hang out, completely just as friends. That boy is to broken to be more then friends with anyone, trust me."

She shrugged, hoping off the counter. "Well he's cute, in a geeky, dorky way, I guess."

"I guess," I agreed.

"So when are you meeting him?"

I looked down at my phone, "An hour."

"You better get dressed then."

I shoved the last few bites of my cupcake in my mouth, rushing into my room. I decided to wear something simple. Besides, it was just two acquaintances, hanging out, right? I took my hair out of the pony tail, letting my blonde curls fall to my shoulders. I applied light make up and put on some pink lipstick. I wore a simple black dress, paired with a beige cardigan, a burgundy scarf, and some long black socks. As I headed out the house I slipped on some simple black boots and an army green jacket, the one I usually wore.

I was rushing out the door, realizing I would be late now. Parker must have been wondering where I was. I ran out the apartment doors and headed towards work, jogging there.

By the time I made it there, it was 9:13pm. I wasn't too late. I didn't want Peter to think I stood him up though. I looked around between the crowds of people that continued to tour around New York. There was no sign of Parker though.

I sighed, sitting down on one of the chairs in front of the recently closed bistro. Either I had just missed him, or he was standing me up.

But he was the one who asked me to hang out… I was over thinking this.

"Hey." My head whipped around, to see Parker leaning against one of the cement pillar in front of the store. Had he been there the whole time?

"Hi." I said, standing up. I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and took a few steps towards him. "Sorry I'm late."

"No problem," He smirked, "Shall we?" He gestured towards the sidewalk, motioning for us to walk.

I nodded, and stepped around him to start walking.

We walked in silence for a few minutes, and it wasn't awkward. It was rather peaceful. I heard a few sighs from Peter. I even saw him stare at the night sky every now and again. The moon beamed down on us like a big flashlight. It was stunning.

It was always so hard to see the night sky due to all the light pollution but the moon was still so beautiful to look at. It almost was too bright to look at.

"Nice, isn't it?"

"Nice is an understatement." I squelched.

"How would you describe it?"

"Look at thing!" I pointed, grinning at him. "It's a gift of nature. It's like a giant flashlight in the sky."

"You have a way with words." Peter chuckled.

I shrugged, smiling to myself. "So where are we headed to?"

"Ice cream."

"YESSS!" I rubbed my hands together, grinning.

Peter burst into a fit of laughter. His husky laughter caused me to giggle a little. I was just happy to see this boy genuinely laugh.

When we made it to the ice cream parlor, we took a seat outside. He ordered two vanilla cones, (after I fought over offering to pay for myself) and took a seat with me. I didn't want him to pay for me, mostly for the pure fact that I didn't want him or me to get the idea that this was more. I didn't have much of a choice though.

"So," Peter started, licking his ice cream, "You said you live in an apartment with your roommate right?"

"Right." I replied.

"With who?"

"Samantha Evans."

"Oh," he nodded, "I remember her."

"You do?" I asked, wiping my mouth with a napkin.

"Yeah she was the chick who always copied off of me during Physics."

I rolled my eyes, chortling out laughter. "Sounds like Sam."

He shrugged, "I didn't mind."

I narrowed my eyes at him, smirking coyly. "So do you live at home, or…"

"With my Aunt May, yeah."

"Cool. Got a job?"

"No," He huffed, shaking his bronze hair, "Way to busy for one."

I pursed my lips, narrowing my eyes at this complex boy. "You don't seem that busy. I mean you go for coffee a lot." I giggled.

He gave me a wide smile, looking up at me with his big brown doe eyes. "Trust me, I am. As of lately anyways."

I took a huge lick of my ice cream. "Mhm," I smiled.

He just shook his head like a puppy, laughing at my way of socializing.

"What?" I smiled.

"Nothing." He pursed his lips, trying to hide his grin as he looked to his feet.

Our laughs faded and I looked inside of the quiet ice cream parlor that looked like it was just closing up. There was a huge television in the corner of the room, and I watched it for a few seconds. Of course, like any other news channel lately, Spider-man was on it, swinging through the streets of New York City.

"Must be great, huh?" I said, nodding my head towards the television inside.

"Hmm? Oh yeah…" He laughed awkwardly, then turned his attention back to his ice cream, eager to finish it.

"Must be so thrilling, swinging through the streets of New York." I turned to Peter.

He continued to wolf down what was left of his ice cream, but then paused. "Do you think it was selfish, what he did?"

My brows furrowed together, "What do you mean? Save hundreds of lives? Hell no."

"No no no. I mean him taking a temporary leave of absence."

"Oh." I paused, "No, not necessarily. Frankly, he deserved a break."

"You think so?"

"Definitely. I mean look at him. He's literally saving someone at least once a day."

Peter smirked, folding his hands underneath his chin. "You seem to like Spider-man a lot."

I shook my head, eating the last bit of ice cream. "I mean I may have a shirt or two… but I just think he's a great person, putting his powers to good use. New York can hardly survive without him. I like to think he gives people hope." I exclaimed, repeating my words from a few nights ago.

His expression was somewhat shocking. He was completely frozen, mouth open, wide eyed.

"What? What did I say?"

He blinked profusely, and then avoided eye contact with me. "Nothing, I mean. Yeah, I agree with you."

"You do?"

"Yeah. But D-Do you think New York really needs him?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, clutching my jacket closer to me to protect myself from the cold autumn air. "You're a funny guy, Peter." Why was he so caught up about Spider-man? Who was the real super fan here?

He rolled his eyes jokingly. "Just answer the question."

I nodded, "Yeah I do think New York needs him. And I think New York always will. He's everyone's first and last hope in this city. He carries a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, though."

Peter sighed, "Yeah no kidding."

I smiled, not knowing what else to say.

Peter ran a hand through his messy hair.

I was just about to open my mouth, bringing up the subject of school, when the blaring sirens passing by interrupted me.

Peter jolted up, eyes following the blue and red lights down the road.

"Something wrong Parker?" I asked, slowly standing up, slinging my purse over my shoulder.

He looked to me, eyes wide, then turned back to the table He snatched his backpack up from his seat and then whipped back around to face me. "I just remembered my Aunt told me to pick up organic eggs before I got home and the organic place closes in ten minutes. I have to go."

"I'll walk with you," I offered.

He shook his head, "No no, it's too far. We should do this again sometime though!" He yelled, already running off in the other direction. "Happy Birthday!"

"Uhh… okay." I spoke to myself, throwing my hands up in the air. I sighed, then pivoted towards the street that lead to my apartment. It was a good half hour walk. Which I usually didn't mind, but it was late at night. I should have taken the car.

I dialed Sam's phone number, praying that she would answer and reluctantly pick me up, but as expected she didn't answer. I sighed and trudged along the quiet sidewalk street. It was just hitting 11:15pm. That was odd. If Peter was talking about the organic place I was thinking of, I knew it closed at 10:00pm.

Hmm.

I shook the thought off and continued to walk.

After fifteen minutes of walking, I heard a noise annunciate through one of the nearby alleys. I shivered, and started to fast walk. I needed to get home and get home fast.

There were loud, sluggish footsteps behind me. I peered over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of a man, dressed in black, grungy clothes. He had a hood slung over his head and to be honest, he looked straight up sketchy. I walked even faster, trying to easy the alert feeling in my chest.

My heart started to pound. I tried to convince myself that it was nothing. That this man was not following me, until I made a random turn, and he followed. It wasn't until the next turn, which he also followed, that I glanced back nervously over my shoulder. The man continued to follow, getting closer and closer to me now.

My skin crawled as the fright in the pit of my stomach continued to rise. I scrunched my eyes shut and gulped.

I could've counted each hair that stood on my back.

The scariest part was when I started to run, and the man broke out in a simultaneous sprint.

I started sprinting as fast as I could, trying to avoid this man, but he ended up herding me down an alley. Like a wolf, and I was playing the role of the sheep.

"Get away from me!" I shrieked, but it was no use.

The man caught up to me and he grabbed me by my wrists. I tried to squeeze out of his grasp but his hands were like cuffs, holding me prisoner to him.

I screamed as loud as I could, hoping someone would hear me but I knew that these apartments were abandoned, no one in their right mind would be around here.

I kicked and thrashed at the man, trying to push him off of me. A fist was thrown to my right eye, and I felt the explosion of pain ripple through me.

When I finally writhed out of his grasp, I made a run for it, holding a hand to my swelling eye.

This man was faster than me, much faster. He grabbed me by my hair and yanked me back.

I screamed some more, but he covered my mouth with his hand. I bit into it, and he hissed in response. I had another chance to make a run for it but there was no use in trying. He grabbed me by the hair again and threw me towards a dumpster. My head hit the corner of it and I fell to the ground with a light thump.

It took a few seconds before I started to feel the warm liquid seep through my skin. I groaned in pain, feeling the fatigue take over. My vision was blurry, and everything seemed to be in slow motion.

"Get up, skank." The man clasped my wrist, trying to pull me up. I just collapsed on the floor again.

"Ahem." Someone cleared their throght. "Excuse me?" That was another voice, not his. I heard a few scuffs of the feet and I tried to look in front of me. Everything was just so blurry though… My whole world was spinning. I saw two colors in front of me. Red, and blue. "Didn't your mother ever teach you respect young ladies?"

"Get out of here, spidey." The man grumbled.

"Ha you wish! I'm your new worst nightmare." There was a series of groans and screams, and laughing from what I assumed was Spider-man, and then there was silence.

I groaned from the pain, presumptuous that everyone had left and I was just sitting here, waiting to die. There was no doubt my ribs were bruised, and if I didn't get up soon I would probably pass out from the loss of blood. I just couldn't be bothered to get up though.

The blood started to trickled down the side of my forehead, blocking my vision with red. I closed my eyes, succumbing to the oblivious state.

"No no, don't go to sleep. Stay awake, open your eyes." A felt a pair of hands lift me up, one hand underneath my shoulder, the other under my eyes. My eyes flashed open for a few seconds at the warm, spandex-y touch.

"You're okay. You're going to be okay."

I moaned in response to this man's words.

The last thing I saw before my vision clouded with darkness was the familiar face of Spider-man.


	3. Chapter 3

My eyes fluttered open to a blinding white light.

Was I dead?

No I highly doubt being dead smelt like anti-bacterial cleaner. The smell burned my nostrils and I groaned in response.

Once my pupils finally contracted enough to determine my surroundings, I relaxed more. I wasn't dead at all, I was in a hospital room. The beeping of the heart monitor beside me and the ugly hospital clothes made it more clear.

I licked my chapped lips a few times, then sat up.

Regretting it immediately, I laid back down. The beating in my head made it impossible for me to sit up without feeling like the room was going to crash beneath me.

The pain of my headache pulsated through me, sending painful shocks throughout the rest of my body.

I rubbed the back of my head, feeling startled when my hand ran over a few sticky bumps in my hair. "What the—"

"Four stitches, and a lot of blood missing."

I whipped my head to the sound of the voice to see Peter sitting there, his hands folded, resting his elbows on his knees.

"Peter…" My voice croaked when I saw the boy sitting in the chair. "W-Why are you here? What happened?" I rubbed my temples, massaging them. "God, my head hurts…"

"You got attacked by some crazy guy on drugs… seeing as it's my fault for not walking you home and leaving you deserted, I kind of feel obligated to be here." He explained.

"O-Oh..." My voice was hoarse. I felt like I had been asleep for a few days… "How long have I been here?"

He looked down to his phone, "Well its 12:00pm right now. You've been here since last night a little after I ditched. I'm really sorry…"

I shook my head leisurely, "Don't worry about it." After readjusting myself to sit up and face him, I asked, "How did I get here? I mean I can't really remember anything…"

"Uh… Spiderman I think." He responded, licking his lips.

"Oh," The left corners of my lip curved up. I could officially say Spider-man had saved me, and that was pretty awesome… I twirled my long hair in my fingertips. "How long have you been here? Is Sam here?"

"Since I got a call last night from the police, asking if I knew what happened. Since I was the last one to see you they questioned me. And Sam was here, but she left a little while ago to go for work, I think."

I nodded, looking away from Peter and down at my blue hospital gown that had a funky flower pattern on it. The intricate swirls on it made it almost mesmerizing.

"You don't have to be here, you know. I mean I appreciate it but you—"

"It's fine. They'll let you out in an hour, after you've talked to the police. Then I'll walk you home."

"Peter, it's the middle of the day. I think I can walk a few steps."

He cracked a half-smile. "I'm going to walk you home."

And that, clearly, was the end of that argument. I just looked down at my gown again, following the swirls with my eyes. Trailing from my hip to my leg.

The awkward tension in the room continued to be unsettling, but I tried to ignore it as best as I could.

"What happened to your eye?" I asked, referring to the swelled skin that started from his right cheekbone.

He perked up, but his mind seemed to be somewhere else other than this room. "Where? Oh yeah, yeah. I don't know… I think I got a rash." He rubbed his brow, above where the slightly swelled skin was.

I frowned. Not because I knew that was a lie, but because I could tell something was off with Peter. I mean, I didn't know him that well, but I knew him well enough to know that he wasn't alright. "Are you okay, Peter?"

"I uh… yeah. Yeah I'm alright." He scratched his head, turning away from me to look out the window behind him.

I left it at that, and lay down in the bed; continuing to twirl my long blonde hair in my fingers. I was laying on my side, the side that wasn't bruised up.

The police came in half an hour later. After sending Peter out of the room they asked me some questions about my attacker, questioning what he looked like. The deputy gave me his call card and left fifteen minutes later.

I buzzed the nurse in instantly. She dismissed me, as long as I promised to make a few trips to the doctor's office throughout the next few weeks. I promised, and then got up from the bed, searching for my clothes. Then it came to me: My clothes must have been covered in my own blood. I couldn't wear those…

"Your friend dropped some off for you before she left," The nurse stated, picking up my thoughts. "They're just over there." She pointed underneath the chair that Peter previously sat on. I snatched them from its place and made my way to the washroom that was in my hospital room.

"Really, Sam?" I mumbled to myself, seeing the hideous clothes she picked out. I already looked like shit, and now I had to wear baggy sweatpants and an old Disney sweater that had holes in it. I slipped them on, feeling the breeze through the little holes of the sweater.

I walked past the mirror a few seconds later, taking a double take. My right eye hurt a lot, and now I knew why…

The bruising around my eye was a deep purple, and it was _very _noticeable. I groaned. At least Peter had seen me at my worst by now…

I walked out of the hospital room and was met with Peter in the hallway. He looked extremely tired and extremely zoned out. I cleared my throat, grabbing his attention. "Ready to go?"

"Huh?" He jumped up with wide eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

We walked out of the hospital and onto the street. I could tell Peter really wasn't in the right state of mind because when I stopped walking to kneel down and tie my shoe, he kept walking, oblivious to the fact I had paused.

After catching up with him, which he also hadn't noticed, I looked at the fragile boy. He didn't look happy. He looked deep in thought. He also looked like he would breakdown crying any second. Since I wasn't really good at dealing with criers, I suggested I walk home by myself from there.

"No." He answered, which surprised me. His voice was only a harsh whisper though. "I'll walk you home. Maybe that will make me feel better after ditching you."

"Peter," I started, "You shouldn't feel bad. I'm alright now, aren't I? Besides, you bought me ice cream. That makes up for the next time you ditch me too," I teased with a smile.

He cracked a small grin, but still didn't look at me.

After walking in silence for the next five minutes, we turned the last left onto my street.

"Well," I said, walking ahead of him. I turned to face him, walking backwards. "This is casa de Anna."

He stopped walking, looking up at the small apartment building. "Nice." Was all he came out with.

"Thanks, Peter." I said, placing my hand on the lobby room door.

His bleak smirk made me sad inside. "No problem. I'll see you around?" He placed his hands in his pockets.

I nodded, "See ya Parker," and opened the door, stepping into my heated apartment building.

* * *

After eating a nice meal with Sam, which consisted of potatoes, roasted chicken, and some salad, I dismissed myself and went to my room. I quickly slipped into some comfy pajamas. I groaned after getting another good look at my bruised eye in my full length mirror, and then moved to my window.

With all my strength, I pushed the window up, wincing at the screeching noise it made. I hopped out on to the fire escape and sat on it, dangling my feet over the edge. I'm glad my room was facing the scenic view, giving me a nice glance of New York.

I usually came out here when I wanted to think, or write some poetry. But today, I just came out here for the fun of it. The view relaxed me. New York City buzzed with its usual noises, and I smiled to myself. The whizzing bikes, the rolling skateboards, the chatter of people, and the honks and sirens that was typically associated with New York.

And of course, with sirens, came Spider-man.

I smiled to myself as I saw the man dressed in spandex shooting webs from building to building.

* * *

I was surprised when I didn't see Peter the following Friday. I shrugged it off though. He might have been sick, or doing school work, or actually hanging out with someone. But he hadn't mentioned anything to me the day before, when we went out for lunch. Well, it wasn't like he was obligated to be here every Friday… I was just over thinking things.

After finishing my shift at three, I made my way to the flower store. Today was the anniversary of my grandmothers' death. And to pay my respects my parents had sincerely asked that I be there, for them as well as myself.

I bought the most beautiful (not to mention expensive) bouquet of white roses, and drove to the cemetery.

After finding a parking spot, I exited my vehicle, flowers in hand, and gradually strolled to my through the front gate of the grave yard. The dark iron gate hung grimly above me and I shuddered just looking at it.

When I found my grandmother I sat on the dew-y grass, not caring to get my black pants wet. I replaced the old flowers with new ones, and stared at the grave.

I was particularly fond of my grandmother, and seeing her past last year made my whole family depressed. I remember one memory of her and I at the beach, before the cancer took over her. It was probably the best memory I had of her, and I still had the seashells we picked that day sitting on my shelf at home.

For the next hour, I sat there righting a poem for my Grandmother, writing about our day at the beach. When the rain started to fall a little bit later, I stood up from my position, stretching out my aching body. After stretching my limbs out, I was equipped to go, but I didn't feel it was time for me to leave yet.

Instead of walking out the gate that was only a few yards away, I walked away from it, taking the long way round. I walked for a few minutes, enjoying the refreshing sprinkle of water from the sky. When the sprinkle transitioned into a down pour, I turned to find my quickest exit. I opened my umbrella and, well, I didn't run to my car, but I definitely walked faster than normal.

I was just about to walk through the gate, when something caught my eye. More specifically, someone.

I saw Peter, with his head hung low, letting the water soak him. It was like something out of a Nicholas Spark's book. The rain was pelting down so hard that I almost didn't see him, but I knew that green jacket and glum expression anywhere.

A cemetery wasn't exactly a pleasant place to make conversation with someone, but I couldn't just let Peter get soaked. Well, he already was, but I didn't want him soaked anymore.

I walked a few steps, getting a good look at the stone he stood in front of.

It read,

**In loving memory of Gwendolyn Stacy**

**1995-2014**

I paused, ogling at it for a brief moment.

"I finally watched your valedictorian speech not too long ago. It was beautiful. I'm sorry I missed it. I miss you. I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me most. I know you wouldn't want me to blame myself, but I still do. Maybe if I listened to your father we wouldn't be in this situation. He's probably yelling 'I told you so' at you right now." Peter sniffled. I felt bad for eavesdropping, but I didn't know what to do. I was not going to let Peter walk home in this, so my only resort was to stay here. "I've tried to move on Gwen. I really have. But every time I see that little Thai restaurant we went to, or that little letter you wrote me, or see a picture of you, everything comes flooding back. I guess I'm really here to say I'm sorry, to tell you that a part of me died with you that day. I don't know what the future will bring, but I know that no matter what. I will never forget you Gwen Stacy, and I'll always love you." He sniffled once more, then I thought I heard him whisper, "I will become hope."

I gave it a few minutes, hiding behind a nearby bush, before approaching Peter. When it was time, I headed towards him. I was still quite a distance away from him. I wanted to give him space.

"Do you want a ride?" I yelled over the pelting rain.

Peter's head snapped up, looking at me. He took a deep breath, before sullenly nodding.

* * *

The rain pelted against the windows, beating against the roof of the car. The only sound was that, and my squeaky windshield wipers.

I pressed my hands tighter to the steering wheel, feeling comfort in the familiarity of its warm grooves.

It battered against the car like a hail of bullets.

The noise started to stress me out, so I turned the volume of my radio up, just a tad.

"A left here," Peter muttered.

I nodded, signaling.

As I sat, stopped at a red light, I glanced over at Peter. He sat there, with his hood over his head (as usual) and he clung to his jacket, as if it would protect him from something. He looked like he had jumped into a pool. The beads of water that formed on the tips of his hair fell, sailing towards the seat beneath him.

I wanted to ask if he was okay, but I clearly knew the answer. This boy had just tried to come to terms with the idea of a life without Gwen. I felt like he was saying goodbye to her, like he was finally taking the last step to moving on without her, but of course who could forget the love of their life?

He had been crying, clearly. But the rain covered up most of it, making it look like his tears weren't tears at all. I could tell by the puffiness of his red eyes though.

"A right," He directed.

I took the next right, and then glanced over at him for a brief second again.

Feeling my gaze, he looked up at me. "Thanks for doing this."

I smiled, "No problem." A few seconds later, I asked the one thing I promised myself I wouldn't have. "Are you okay?"

I instantly cursed myself internally. If I weren't driving, I would be giving myself face palms. Why would I ask that?

"Yeah its…" He wiped his face with his wet sleeve, "It's just…"

"It's okay Peter," I smiled at him, letting him know it was okay to be upset in front of me.

He let out a shaky sigh. "It's just we were supposed to go to England together… and, and, I'm not supposed to be here."

I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces. I pulled over to the side of the ride, finding a space to park in, and turned the car off. I leaned over to him, giving him a hug. I was afraid to touch him at first, but decided to go through with the gesture anyways. I wasn't sure if he would accept it, considering we weren't really close, but I was relieved when he wrapped his arms around me too.

"I'm supposed to be in England..."

"I'm sorry, Peter." I mumbled into his wet jacket, pulling him closer to me. "I'm _so so _sorry."

We sat there for a while, just clinging to each other. When he was ready to talk, he did. I asked him what Gwen was like, trying to cheer him up, and he told me. He talked about her for more than a half hour, his face lighting up whenever he said her name. This girl meant _so _much to him. And it wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. He didn't deserve this, and neither did she.

I didn't know how Gwen died, and I was definitely not up to asking why.

Maybe one day I would ask.

After another half hour of talking, and Peter finally starting to look happier, I drove him home.

"Thanks again," He said with a bleak smile.

"No problem," I smiled through the passenger door, looking up at him as he stood in the rain.

"Bye Emily," He said, getting ready to close the door.

"See ya, Parker," I replied, watching him close the passenger door and walk up to the steps of his porch.

* * *

The next few days were busy, busy enough that I hadn't even had the chance to talk to Peter. When I finally did get the chance to talk to him on a Sunday afternoon after work, he invited me for dinner. It was an odd gesture, but I gladly accepted.

When I showed up around their doorstep around five, a woman opened the door. Assumedly, this older looking woman with brunette hair was Peter's Aunt.

"Hello—"

"I got it, I got it," Peter yelled from behind her. I saw him fly down the stairs, landing with a thump as he hit the floor. "Oh."

I smiled at him, then moved to his Aunt. "Hello Mrs. Parker. I'm Emily Taylor.

She laughed, "Please. Call me May! And trust me: I kow who you are. Peter talks about you quite a bit lately." She moved past the door, opening it wider for me. "Come on in, hun."

My heart was warmed by that comment. Did Peter talk about me? From the blush that rose to his cheeks and the glare that was shot at his aunt, I assumed so.

"Thank you," I said, brushing past her. I slipped off my jacket, placing it on one of the hooks. There house was very comforting. It wasn't too big, but maybe a little spacious for the two people living there. I looked at the photos on the walls of Peter as a child, as well as May and who I assumed was her husband. Peter's untied shoes lingered in the doorway, and the quotes on the walls expressed a more soothing feeling.

"Dinner isn't ready yet. Are you okay with lasagna?"

Just saying the word made my stomach growl. "I love lasagna!" I said a little over exuberantly.

I heard Peter chuckle from behind me.

"Why don't you show her around Peter?"

"Uh… Okay." He retorted.

His Aunt descended into the kitchen and we were left awkwardly standing in the hallway.

"So… Uh…. This clearly is the living room." He gestured to the room beside us and I nodded. "Kitchen's in there, basements that door," He took a step on the creaky stairs, and started to walk up them. He looked back, making sure I was following, and when I started to, he continued his journey.

I was met with another hallway, with two doorways and a closet. One of them was May's room, and the other Peter's.

He rubbed the nape of his neck as he turned the door knob, revealing everything that was inside of his room. He walked in and sat on a chair beside the door, one in front of a desk with a computer placed on top of it.

I followed behind him, trailing his footsteps, and paused in the center of his room, taking it all in.

His bed was in the left corner of his room, beside a small blue armchair. Beside that was a tiny bookshelf, the books overflowing like a waterfall on the floor. There was another door that led to a washroom. He had a poster of Einstein on it. His whole room was plastered with posters, some comics, some bands, and some pictures. There were a few framed pictures in the room. Two of them had Gwen in it, one of them was with his Aunt and Uncle and the other was him as a boy, with two people I did not recognize.

"Did you take these?" I questioned, referring to the display of pictures on the wall.

He nodded innocently.

I observed them, taking a closer look. "These are really good. Like _really _ good."

"Thanks."

I turned to him, grinning.

He reclined back in his chair, then moved a mouse and pressed a button on his computer.

I was startled when I saw the door close and a little mechanical lock secure the door.

"What the—"

"It's just a lock I designed that you can control from the computer." He folded his arms behind his head.

"Peter! That's like insanely awesome."

He grinned instantly.

"You're rooms alright. I'm kind of impressed, I guess."

He just smiled again.

I sat down on his bed, which had dirty clothes all over it. We were silent for a while.

"Hey, uuhh… thanks for the other day."

I knew what he was referring to, at the cemetery. "No problem, Peter."

"Seriously, thank you. That talk opened my eyes up to a lot of things and helped me shut some doors that needed to be closed."

I cocked my head slightly at him. "What do you mean?" Was he talking about Gwen?

"DINNER!"

Peter just looked at me, grinning, and then unlocked the door, walking out of it, departing our conversation.

I followed him down the creaky steps and into the kitchen, where a dining table was placed nicely in the middle of it.

"I'm so hungry" Peter announced, taking a seat.

I took a close seat behind him and picked up my fork, ready to dig in.

By the time I took my fourth bite, Peter had finished his first serving. He stood up, grabbing an even bigger slab of lasagna. This boy could eat…

May asked me all sorts of questions like what I did occupational wise, where I lived, if I was going to school, where I was going to school, and etcetera. I asked her a few questions as well. She mostly talked about Peter or her late husband Ben. He sounded like such a great father figure for Peter. Not once did the subject of Peter's real parents come up and I didn't feel in the right position to ask just yet. Maybe one day I would.

When the sounds of sirens flooded by us, Peter instantly perked up, like before.

"Well thanks for dinner Aunt May it was delicious, Emily and I are going to my room." He rushed.

He took my plate in front of me, dumped it into the sink, (Food still in it) And grabbed my wrist, leading me upstairs. I glanced back at May and just shrugged, not knowing what was up with him.

He lead me upstairs and sat me on his bed.

"Peter, what's—"

"I have to go. I'm really sorry." He looked over at me, kneeling down in front of me. "Please, though, whatever you do don't go walk home by yourself. Please. I'll be right back, I promise."

"Where are you going?"

He stood up, walking over to the window. "I'll be right back! Promise me you won't leave until I get back?"

"Uhh…" I was so confused…

"Promise?"

"Promise." I said finally.

And with that, he jumped out of the window, taking the fire escape to climb down.

I threw my hands up in the air, groaning at his departure.

This was just like the day of the ice cream.

For the first few minutes I played brick breaker on my phone, hoping he would only be a little while. But when the half hour mark came I got even more bored.

I looked around his room, observing it. Whatever is in someone's room says a lot about them. I now knew what band's Peter was into, that he was interested in photography, and that he looked up to Einstein.

I glanced over at Peter's desk, seeing a picture of him and Gwen. It was adorable, really. Her head was on his chest, and he leaned down to kiss her. It made me smile to myself.

Gwen always appeared to have so much joy. We needed more people like that in the world.

When the hour mark passed, I sat on his computer chair. There was a usb stick labeled "Gwen's speech". If Peter caught me watching this, I don't think he would really care. Besides, I was there the day she did it. Peter, from what I heard at the cemetery, was not.

I plugged it in and opened the file. The video started to play.

_"Good morning esteemed faculty and families of my fellow graduates. It's an honor do be standing up here today. I know we all think we're immortal. We're supposed to feel that way. We're graduating. But like our three- four years in high school, what makes life valuable is that it doesn't last forever. What makes it precious is that it ends. I know that now more than ever. And I say it today of all days, to remind us that time is luck. So don't waste it living someone else's life. Make yours count for something. Fight for what matters to you. No matter what. Because even if we fall short, what better way is there to live? And I know it's easy to feel hopeful on a beautiful day like today, but there will be dark days ahead of us too, and there'll be days where you feel all alone, and that's when hope is needed most. Keep it alive. No matter how buried it gets, or lost you feel, you must promise me, that you will hold on to hope and keep it alive. We have to be greater than what we suffer. My wish for you, is to become hope. People need that. And again, if we fail, what better way is there to live? As we look around here today at all of the people who helped make us who we are, I know it feels like we're saying goodbye, but we will carry a piece of each other into everything that we do next, to remind us of who we are, and of who we're meant to be. I've had a great four years with you, and I'll miss you all very much."_

The speech literally brought tears to my eyes. I hadn't realized the depths of her words until now. And they were so inspiring. It reminded me of the cemetery when Peter said to Gwen, "I will become hope."

I smiled through the few stray tears as I unplugged the usb.

Peter still wasn't back yet so I groaned, again, and lay on his bed.

I would give him another half hour. If he still wasn't back I was leaving.

I found a remote somewhere on his bed and flicked on the small, old, television in the corner of his room. It buzzed on and the news popped up.

Spider-man, of course, was in it. An office building was on fire and Spider-man literally save every person from it. You could see from the footage that parts of his suit had burned through. Yet, he still continued to save the lives of others.

After hearing about how the fire started from an electrical problem, and listening to all the survivors that were in the building, I flicked the television off. It was turning 11:00pm and I had school tomorrow.

I know I promised Peter I would wait, but it had been two hours and he still hadn't made an appearance.

I picked up my purse from the floor of his room, and creaked open the door. I slipped out of it and flew down the stairs.

I saw May sitting in the living room.

"Thank you so much for dinner Mrs— uh, May. I really appreciated it."

"Oh you're welcome dear! Stop bye anytime. It's good to see Peter having friends over. IS he not walking you out?"

"Uh…" I didn't know what to say. Would she be annoyed that he left? Probably… But I didn't want to lie to her. "No." Was all I could say.

"Oh." She frowned. "Well thank you for coming Emily."

"No, thank you! Goodbye." I said, slipping on my shoes. I opened the door, walking out of it, and shut it behind me.

The cold air made me shiver. The walk wasn't too long. Probably fifteen minutes. I think I could make it without getting attacked again. I speed walked, not wanting to chance it.

"Hey, Blondie!" I turned around, wondering where the voice came from. It sounded familiar.

I was utterly speechless when I saw Spider-man swing down, detaching one of his webs from the building and land right beside me. He casually walked beside me.

"Uh, hello?" I said, observing him. His suit was burned in some places, assumedly from the fire that had just occurred.

"What are you doing walking out here by yourself?"

I didn't know what to say. I was so… star struck…. That I could hardly come out with any words. "Um, walking"

He chuckled, "Really? I couldn't tell."

"Umm…" I couldn't find any words. "A-Aren't you supposed to be saving people from a fire or something?"

"Already done" He said coolly.

"No offense or anything. But, uh, why are you walking with me?" I asked, looking into my reflection in his glass white eyes.

"A pretty girl like you can't just walk home by yourself. Last time that happened I had to literally throw a guy off of you."

He skipped along beside me, looking so jolly. "Yeah." I gulped, looking at my own feet, "Thanks for that."

He shrugged, "No biggie."

I wanted to ask this guy so many questions, tell him thank you for everything he's done for this city. But I was entirely flabbergasted. I could tell this guy was young, probably around my age. The way his body swayed and the sound of his voice. His voice seemed so familiar, but I couldn't pin point it.

"This is a nice walk," He said, skipping along the sidewalk. This guy was so high-spirited it made me want to laugh. But I was too nervous. Way too nervous.

Instead I just nodded.

When I made it to my house, I turned to look at him, seeing my reflection in his glassy white eyes. "Well, uh, thanks Spidey" I said, awkwardly twirling my hair in my fingers.

"No problem, Blondie." I could sense the smile in his voice, although I couldn't see it threw the charred mask.

He patted my back, before shooting a web up to the building across the street, swinging way.

I grinned to myself as I walked in.

Spider-man had just walked me home.

**Hope you all enjoy this chapter! Thank you for the reviews they really make my day :') Thanks for the follows and fav's as well! Tell me your thoughts on this chapter and what you want to see progress through out this story! **


	4. Chapter 4

I woke up early in the morning to my phone ringing, and I saw one missed call from an unknown number.

"Hello?" I whispered into the phone, yawning

"Emily, hey. Where'd you go last night?"

It was Peter. "Peter, you took like two hours."

"I know I'm sorry. I promise to make it up to you. I'll buy you ice cream or something."

"Oh Peter," is said sarcastically, "You know the way to my heart. Food." It was true though. I would probably forgive anyone for anything if food was involved.

He chuckled from the other line. "Well I'm glad you got home safe."

Yeah with Spider-man's help. "Yeah." Was all I said, "How'd you get my number?"

"Doesn't matter." He replied.

"Um… Okay. So are you going to tell me where you went last night?"

"I, uh, I have to go. Talk to you later?"

Of course he did.

"Sure."

"Goodbye Em,"

I smiled, liking the nick name he called me. A lot of people called me that, it was just nice to hear it from him.

"See ya, Pete."

* * *

"So," Peter started, walking with me after school one day, "I was thinking since I keep ditching you lately, I'd make it up to you by bringing some pizza over tonight."

"Well," I said, walking across the crosswalk. "Pizza is welcome anytime at my house."

"Of course it is."

I shot him a wide grin.

He just chuckled. "So your place at 7?"

"Sounds like a plan, Stan." I rhymed.

Once again, he just chuckled.

A little after 7 that day, Peter arrived at my apartment. I buzzed him in and a modest while later I heard a knock.

I opened the door, smiling up at him. "Mmmmm." I said, ogling at the extra large pepperoni pizza he was holding.

"You're so weird," He laughed, shaking his head.

"Whatever dork." I said opening the door wider, with a smile. "Welcome to my humble abode."

He studied the room with his eyes, darting them back and forth, and then I saw him run over to the L-shaped couch, diving on it and landing with a thump.

"Make yourself at home," I said sarcastically, after he clearly already did.

"Hey, I brought you pizza." He warned.

"Well, like I said, the pizza's welcome here anytime, you not so much." I teased.

He just rolled his eyes and put his arms behind his head.

I set the pizza box down on a table and took a seat on the edge of the couch, in front of where his reclined body was.

He readjusted himself so we weren't touching and just sat uncomfortably, knowing I had gotten too close to him. I understood, somewhat. He didn't want to get too close to me and not in the physical sense. He had lost a lot of people in his life, the most important ones, and he obviously wouldn't just open himself up to someone; because if he did, and something happened to them, he wouldn't survive that. He would be devastated.

I know as much as he hated to admit it though, him and I were become extremely close friends. I would even consider him as one of my best friends.

"Sam's not here?" he asked, interrupting my thought train.

"No she's out with some boy she's been obsessing over for months." I replied, taking a large bite of my slice of pizza.

Peter reached around me to grab a slice and I saw his sizzled flesh, scabs starting to form all over his arms.

"Peter, what happened?" I said, referring to the burns.

"Oh, it's nothing. Let's just say I'm not a good cook."

"Clearly," I said, snatching up his arms to get a closer look. They looked completely charred up, and painful.

He stole his hand back, releasing it from my grasp. "Hey," He said, lightly hitting my shoulder for my comment.

I just grinned at him, showing as much teeth as possible. He rolled his eyes and took a large bite out of his slice. "So have you at least gotten that checked out?"

He shook his head, "Just a small flesh wound," he teased, "I'll live."

I sighed, shaking my head in minor frustration. When we finished eating, we threw the pizza box in the recycling and I tugged on his arm to pull him towards my room.

"Oh!" He said in response, almost tripping.

"Let's go!" I towed him down the small hallway and into my room. I let go of him once I opened the door and belly flopped onto my bed, propping myself up on one elbow. "Paint me like one of your French girls," I laughed, quoting titanic.

"Shut up!" He chuckled and threw a nearby pillow at me.

I smacked it on the floor and then observed him as he scrutinized my room. He paused when he walked in, much like I did when I first saw his room. There wasn't much to witness. I had a small bed in the corner, a white vanity on the other side of the room a tiny walk-in closet and a few framed photos.

"You're rooms alright. I'm kind of impressed, I guess." He mimicked me from the other night.

I just rolled my eyes and folded my arms over my chest, staring at the ceiling. "Sorry I'm not Peter 'mechanical robotic lock making' Parker."

"Such a disappointment…" He joked.

"So what are our plans for tonight?" I readjusted to face him.

He shrugged, wide eyed.

I gave him a warm, closed-lipped smile. "Let's go on an adventure."

"An adventure?" He questioned, brows arched.

I nodded, "An adventure."

"Okay… Where to?"

I shrugged, "I don't know!" I was just feeling so high-spirited. It was dark now and the lights of New York were calling to me.

I glanced over to Peter who just sat on the edge of my bed with a contempt smile. He looked so smug. It made me smile. This boy's smile was contagious; whenever he did I did the same. He had an easy, natural grin. It always had a hint of timidness at first but it's charming and simplicity made up for it. It was like the true nerd in Peter was coming out, and I enjoyed seeing that.

As crazy as this was, Peter's smile gave me hope. I always felt like something great would come out of it. Like a rainbow, after a storm. It gave me an anticipated feeling, but not in a nerve-wracking way.

I watched as his lanky body reclined back on my bed. He rubbed his temples with his muscular hands. Peter had an oddly shaped body, in a good way. He was quite tall, but he did have muscles (From what I could see through his usual three layers of clothes he wore). But it also wasn't an overly-muscled body like some guy who appeared to go to the gym too much. It was a perfectly sized body.

I watched as he ran a hand through his hair, and an overwhelming fluttering feeling radiated throughout me.

He peered up at me and for a second, and I almost wanted to avoid contact, although I always anticipated seeing his big doe brown eyes. I just felt nervous around him as of lately.

Maybe his geekiness was rubbing off on me. I smiled to myself at my own comment.

"So," He started, looking over to me with a devilish smile, "An adventure."

* * *

"Guess what happened the other day."

"What?" Peter questioned, looking up to me as we walked along the busy New York sidewalk.

"Spider-man walked me home." I announced, waiting for the excitement on his face.

Instead, a sly smirk spread across his lips. "Did he now?"

"Mhm." I nodded, putting my hands in my pocket. "It was pretty frickin' awesome."

"I bet."

"He even gave me a nick name." I continued, intrigued by Peter's reactions.

"Oh really?"

"Ye_p_" I said, popping the letter _p_. "'Blondie' Although I'm sure he calls every other blonde girl he walks home that too."

"I'm not so sure about that." Peter said, raising his head to peer up at me.

"Oh? You think not?"

He shrugged, staring back at the sidewalk.

"You seem to know a lot about Spider-man."

Once again, his shoulders fell back into a slight shrug. "Just interested in irradiated spider's empowering one with arachnid proportional strength and agility."

"Of course you are." I said, licking my lips. "So what are we doing?"

"I don't know. It was your idea to go an adventure." He ran a hand through his messy hair. "Hey your eye is getting better."

"Yeah I — I guess." I raised my hand to my face, running my fingertips over the bruised skin. "So is your 'rash'" I said, finger quoting the words.

He just smirked.

We turned down an alley, taking a short cut to wherever we were going, and then we made it onto another main street. The large Oscorp building towered in front of us. I paused for a second, taking in its extravagance. Peter stood beside me watching as I gawked at the building.

I remembered going in there with my dad as a young kid, watching him study his small biology labs. This building was unbelievable. "My dad used to work there." I stated to Peter.

"Mine too." He surprised me.

"Really?" My gaze was averted from the building and now towards Peter.

He nodded. I adjusted myself so I could eyes with Peter. I felt we were close enough to ask questions about each other but I was still kind of hesitant to. "Peter, what happened to your father?"

He blinked a few times, his expression un readable, and then looked down to his hands, lacing and unlacing them.

I felt a pang in my change, instantly regretting asking him. I decided to open up, to tell him something not many people knew about me.

I felt myself doing the same thing as Peter, feeling nervous and also sad. "My sister died when I was seven." From my peripheral, I saw Peter raise his head. "When she was four we, uh," I gulped, preparing myself for the wave of emotions that were about to flood through me. "We took a road trip down to Rhode Island for a few days and on the way back we got T-boned by a semi-truck." I felt my eyes well up with tears, but I tried to push them back for the sake of Peter being there.

"It's okay," He said, repeating the words I said to him when he talked about Gwen. He was telling me it was okay to be sad, and that he was there for me.

A stray tear fell down the left side of my cheek, and he caught it with his thumb.

I glanced up at him, then back down at my feet as he retrieved his hand back. "She was dead instantly. No suffering, I guess that's good. You know they say the safest seat in a car is behind the driver? I wish she sat there and not I." Another tear fell, and Peter didn't catch it this time, because they kept coming now. Like a sink faucet.

I felt Peter pulled me closer to him and the strength of his arms locked around me, trapping me in his never ending warmth. "It's okay," He repeated, whispering in my ear.

I awkwardly placed my arms around him now, not wanting him to let go. I knew if I didn't, he might stop hugging me. I felt the warm breath coming off of his lips tickle my shoulder.

I didn't want this hug to end, I really didn't. Peter was the first person, beside Sam, who I had opened up to about my sister, Jess. I trusted Peter, probably more then I trusted anyone, and to have him be there for me was a remarkable feeling.

"My parent's passed away when I was seven. They left to go on a private flight and died overseas."

I didn't say anything, just tightened my arms around him even more.

We went home after that, taking a cab. We didn't feel like walking. When we got to my house at elevn I offered him a drink.

"No thanks," He shook his head at the glass of milk I held out to him.

I nodded and sat on the couch.

He was watching television, listening to a segment about Spider-man's latest adventures. I walked over to a frame that was on the wall opposite from us, then walked back to him, sitting on the couch. I pulled my feet up to my chest and wrapped an arm around them, handing the frame to him.

"This was her."

He took the frame, smiling at it. In the photo, Jess was playing in our old house, in the sandbox in the backyard. She loved that sand box, although it always smelt like cat piss.

"She's so cute." He smiled, putting the frame on the coffee table.

I nodded, yawning.

My eyelids fluttered a few times, and I struggled to keep them open. I looked over to Peter, who was still intently watching the television, and then I let my body relax. I felt my consciousness ebbing away, and then everything finally went dark.

* * *

The infamous Spider-man theme sing rang through my ears. It took me a few minutes to realize it wasn't a dream. My eyes shot open in an instant. My head was on Peter's shoulder, in the crook of his shoulder and his head.

When he woke up, he gently pushed me off of him, like he always did whenever he noticed the slightest affection.

"Shit." He breathed, staring at his phone. "Shit!" He lifted the phone to his ear, "Hello?"

I couldn't hear the voice clearly on the other line but I could tell it was a woman's voice, May's probably, and she didn't sound happy.

"I know, I'm sorry." He paused, "We fell asleep, and— I know. Yes. Okay I'm on my way home now." He licked his lips, "Aunt May, I'll be fine. I've walked home this late before. Okay. Love you too, bye."

He ran a hand through his hair, his eyes darted back and forth. "I— what time is it?"

I looked down to my phone, "2:00 am." Holy…

"I have to go, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep on you like that—uh, I should go." He was making this way more awkwarder then it needed to be…

"Um, okay. I mean, I would drive you home, but looks like my roommate is... Uh… usually this is the part where I say some witty euphemism for sex but I'm too tired to think."

He just smiled, forcing his feet into his shoes, almost toppling over. "See you tomorrow?" I was taken aback about his forwardness of asking me to hang out again.

I nodded, over exuberantly. "I work till 5,"

"Okay," he unlocked the door, "Goodbye Emily."

The way my name sounded coming out of his lips was like chocolate. Sweet and velvety. It made me all tingly inside.

"Goodbye Parker," I beamed, saying my famous last words to him.

And with that, he threw me his greatest grin, and shut the door.

* * *

After chatting to Sam about the previous night, (Which she filled me in about Brandon, the guy she was now seeing), I headed to work.

When I finished at five, I saw Peter through the large glass doors. He waved like a little boy excited to see the girl he has a crush on.

"Hey!" He said, pulling his hood off of his head. His radiant expression made me ecstatic. I was happy to see that he waited outside of work for me. I was always blissful when I saw my best friend. It probably didn't mean anything at all that he took off his hood when he saw me, just a simple movement, but it made me buoyant. It felt like we were getting closer, and he was one step closer to opening himself up to me, instead of shutting everyone out.

When I first saw him, sitting at that coffee table alone a few months ago, I felt pitiful for him, and part of me still felt that way, but now whenever I saw him I couldn't help but smile. He wasn't the same person he was back then. Makes me wonder what he was like when he was with Gwen.

"Hey" I finally replied.

He beamed down at me, and then we started our walk. I don't know where we were going but we would end up somewhere, we always did.

He dropped his skateboard to the floor, and planted his feet on it, rolling on the cement a little faster than I could keep up with.

"How can you ride that thing? It's like a death trap…"

"Oh, come on. It's not that hard." He hopped off of it, pulling the skateboard close to him. "I'll teach you."

"No no no." I held my hands up in defense, "I am not riding that thing."

"Come on!" He pleaded.

"Nuh-uh." I shook my head like a toddler.

He wrapped his arm around my waist. "Come on…"

I jumped at his touch, startled by his gesture. When he realized what he had done, he pulled away. His face was shameful, like it was some crime. I, on the contrary, enjoyed the feeling of his arms around my waist.

"Please, for me?" His eyes widened, and his hands locked together.

I rolled my eyes imperturbably and chuckled a little. My laugh faded, and I looked into his eyes again, feeling them lock right with mine. I just stared into them, not wanting this connection to break. "Peter Parker…" I breathed.

He cocked his head curiously.

"The effect you have on me and my decisions is kind of insane."

He smiled in triumph, "So is that a yes?"

"I suppose."

"I always win!" He cheered, towing me down the street.

When we made it to the skate park, not too far from his house, he showed off some tricks, and then asked me to try.

My eyes widened, "What? No."

"I'll help you. I'll teach you. You'll be fine, trust me."

"I don't want to fall…"

"I won't let you fall, I promise."

"I'm going to fall."

"No you won't!" He chuckled. "I'll catch you, I promise."

"Promise?"

He nodded, "I promise, Emily."

I gnawed on my lip, and then decided I would go for it. What's the worst that could happen? I nodded, and Peter's face lit up.

"Okay." Peter put one hand on my hip. I looked up at him, and he just stared at me bug-eyed. "S-So you're going to place one foot on the board." I hesitated, but did so. "Now put the other foot on. I'll hold you, don't worry." He placed his other hand on my hip, and then I planted my other foot on the board. "See? You're fine."

I wobbled a bit, but somewhat had my balance. "Now I'm just going to gently take my hand off of your—"

"No!" I yelled objectively. "No don't let go." I lost my balance for a few seconds and grabbed Peter's forearms. "Please…" I was way too scared to fall. I clutched on to his arms as tight as I possibly could, and I could feel the strong muscles he was working to keep me up.

"You're doing great," He reassured with a smile, "How about I hold you and we move a little bit?"

"L-Like actually skate?"

"Like actually skate." He chuckled.

I gulped and leisurely nodded.

"Its flat pavement, don't worry." He laughed.

"Why are you enjoying this so much?" I said harshly.

He just gave me a wide, humorous, grin.

He slowly pushed me down the pavement, and I continued to clutch his forearms. I tried to wobble back and forth, keeping my balance, failed miserably. Eventually, ten minutes or so later, I got the hang of balancing while holding Peter.

I smiled every now and again. It wasn't so bad… I just hated falling.

"See you got it!" He yelled from quite a distance away. That was when it hit me… He let go of me… I felt like a little kid learning to ride a bike and their father had just let them go. Panicked waved over me and I tried to balance myself but I wobbled. I was heading further down the pavement, heading straight for a pole used to do tricks on.

"Oh no…" I breathed, bracing myself for the impact. Peter never taught me how to turn. I shut my eyes, not wanting to see the disaster take place. When I reopened them, not feeling the impact when I should have, I was met with Peter's lovable brown eyes. He just laughed down at me.

I was in his arms, I was okay.

Once I gathered myself up, I stood upright and lightly slapped him on the shoulder. "You let go of me you ass butt!"

"Ass butt?" He chuckled, turning into a fit of laughter, "I was just trying to help, and look; you did great!"

"Yeah until the part where I almost hit a pole and died."

"Oh stop being so melodramatic!" He chuckled.

"Then stop enjoying this so much," I folded my arms over my chest.

The laughter didn't stop. He just continued in his fit of giggles, and I couldn't help but join in after a while. When my laugh faded, I wiped the tip of my nose, a smile on my face.

Peter, in an instant, yielded his laughter, but a smile was still spread across his face.

"What?" I asked, wiping the tip of my nose again.

"Nothing," He shook his head, staring at his feet with a smile. "That thing you just did with your nose, it was uh…" He looked back up at me, "It was cute," he finished, smiling smugly.

I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks as he said that. "Thanks?" I said, almost questioningly, trying to hide my blush.

"I— uh," He rubbed the nape of his neck. "Guess what happened?"

My phone ringing interrupted his words. I held up a finger, and pulled the phone up to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Emily, it's Mom. Where are you? We've called you a million times!"

"What? I'm out with a friend. You're in England right now, why do you care?" I replied, scratching my head in confusion.

Peter cocked his head, narrowing his eyes.

"Didn't you get our letter? We're visiting for the night before we go to Florida—"

"Mom! No one sends letters anymore. Why didn't you call me or text me?"

"I emailed you…" She explained in her soft melodious voice. I admit, it was nice to hear her voice, but I couldn't believe she was at my apartment right now!

"Mom…"

"No one emails anymore either?"

"Not really…"

"Either way, we're waiting outside to be buzzed in."

"Umm…" I looked to Peter, who looked more confused than I did, and then looked back down at my feet, pressing a finger to my ear to drown out the other noise. "I'll be there in ten, okay?"

"Okay," she replied. "Love you," I heard her and my dad say in the background.

"Love you too." I responded, hanging up. I shoved my phone in my pocket and turned to a bewildered Peter, supposedly expecting an explanation. "Okay, so my parents decided to spontaneously show up for dinner because they're here for a night until they leave for Florida. I have to go."

"Oh," Peter said, a little stunned by the words I just spat at him, "Okay, that's fine. I'll just go." He pointed in the direction of his house.

"No! Come with me."

He abruptly had bug eyes and he looked anxious. "Umm…"

I didn't have time to waste and I wasn't going to let Peter say no. Instead, I just grabbed his wrist, "You're coming, let's go." I dictated.

"Yes, boss." He replied.

I elbowed him in the rib, ignoring his small "ow," and waved to the nearest taxi.

When we arrived at my apartment I was surprised to see no one standing there. Was this some kind of joke? I let myself in and walked to the 8th floor.

When I unlocked the door, I was even more staggered when I saw my parents sitting in my living room, two giant suitcases and two small carry-on's parked beside them.

My mother jumped up from my infamous L-shaped couch and immediately forced me into a hug. I felt her warm breath on my neck. "I missed you." She muttered into my hair.

I giggled, releasing her, "I missed you too mom. How did you guys get in?"

"Sam came home before leaving to the movies."

"Oh," After giving my dad a big bear hug, which I had to stand on my tiptoes for, I introduced the new stranger in the room.

Peter nervously fiddled with his hands.

"Mom, Dad, this is Peter. Peter Parker."

"U-Uh hello Mr. and Mrs. Taylor."

Knowing my mom, she pulled him into a hug, rather than going for a handshake. "It's lovely to meet you Peter!" She grinned.

"You as well." He smiled shyly.

He held out a shaky hand to my father.

After running a hand through his brownish-grayish hair, my dad shook Peter's hand, who politely held it out to introduce himself. "So Parker, as in Richard Parker?"

Peter tensed up and his attention was completely on my father. "Yes. My father. You knew him?"

My father and I nodded. "Of course I did. Richard and I worked together quite often, as well as Dr. Hendrix. We worked with cross species genetics a little bit. That was his focus, right?"

Peter eagerly nodded, "Yes, specifically cross-species spiders."

"Right, right. He worked with Curt Connors quite a bit."

Peter nodded.

"I'm glad Connors is in prison now."

"Me too," Peter responded, referring to the lizard incident that happened a while back. Dr. Connors had a mishap with cross-species lizards. He created a formula to re-grown an arm he lost. When he injected it like a flu shot, it didn't just re grow his arm, he literally turned into a giant lizard. I wasn't too involved in it but I heard about it all over the news.

"Thank God for Spider-man," I concluded, walking to the kitchen table.

**A/N: Sorry its been a little while I went away for a week and I'm going away next week too! I hope you enjoy this chapter! It mostly focuses on their relationship progressing but I promise the plot line will appear in the next chapter or two. THanks for reading :) Thanks for the reviews too!**


	5. Chapter 5

"So, Peter, what are you studying in school?" My mom spun her spaghetti in her fork, and lifted the fork to her mouth.

"Engineering Physics at ESU," Peter replied, chewing his mouthful of food. "I'm also planning to take a photography class next year."

"That's quite the diversity," My father answered.

Peter nodded.

"So do you have a job?"

"I actually just got a job. It's a small thing, just working for the daily bugle once a week."

"What?" I said a little too loud, "You never told me, that's awesome!"

"That's what I was going to tell you earlier," Peter smiled, "They're paying me to take pictures of Spider-man."

"That's incredible, Peter." My mom replied.

"Yeah!" I concurred, giving him a pat on the back.

"Thanks," He chuckled.

There was a short, drawn out, silence. "So, how long have you to been together?"

Peter started coughing, choking on something. I dropped my fork, resulting in a large clang. This just made the room a whole lot discomfited.

"Umm—"

Peter continued to cough. He grabbed his glass of water and chugged what was left of it. Once he calmed himself, he apologized for his sudden outburst.

"Mom, umm, Peter and I are not together. We're just good friends."

"Oh." My mom said, almost disappointed. "Oh…"

"Yeah."

After we all finished dinner, we sat on my couch to talk for a little bit, before my parents had to leave. The New York News played in the background of out jabbering.

Peter and my father continued to talk about Peter's father, Richard, while my mom and I talked about Jess for a little bit. We were all caught up in our conversations when my dad interrupted us. "What did the news just say?"

I turned away from my mother and towards my father, who fervently grabbed the remote, blasting the volume up.

_"Dr. Hendrix was last seen at Oscorp Industries working with cross-species wolf DNA. He hasn't been seen since and the missing person's report has been out for over a week now. If anyone has seen him immediately contact the NYPD."_

A pictured appeared on the screen. It was an older man, probably a man older then my father. He had grayish hair, was dressed in lab gear, and the wrinkles on his face suggested he was about sixty years old. He was tall, but not too tall.

"That's a shame…" My father broke the silence. "Hendrix was a good man. I worked with him often."

"You did?" Peter asked before I could.

My father nodded in response. "He was working for a long time on finding some way to regain his hearing. He went deaf after a tragic lab experiment back in '03. I really hope this isn't another Curt Connors thing and instead he's just taken an unannounced leave of absence."

Peter nodded. "Me too…" He said, mostly to himself.

When the NYPD sounded in the distance I practically expected Peter to leave. It was just some strange coincidence that always seemed to happen.

As expected, he explained that, "Aunt May asked me to pick her up from work. I completely forget! Emily, I'm sorry. I'll see you tomorrow?"

I nodded, disappointingly.

He gave me a quick hug, said his goodbyes and flew out the door.

"That was quite abrupt." My father blurted after Peter's absence.

I nodded, "It happens often. He forgets stuff a lot."

My mother smiled, looking contently at me. "Well, we better get going."

I felt my heart ache. As surprising as this visit was, it was nice to see my parents. I said goodbye to my father, who gave me his famous giant bear hug. When I turned to my mother, she smothered me with kisses, leaving red lipstick stains all over my face.

She gave me one long hug and whispered something softly in my ear. "That boy likes you a lot."

I released our hug and stared into her eyes, frowning. "How do you know?"

"He couldn't stop staring at you the whole dinner. I know he does, because your father always used to look at me like that." She smiled tenderly, giving my one last kiss on the cheek, and then headed out the door to join my father.

* * *

"SAM!" I shrieked, jumping on to her fluffy pink bed. It was like a cloud, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" I woke her up the exact same way she woke me up. "Are you excited!?" I asked, jumping up and down on her bed.

She yawned, but smiled after. "Of course I am. This is going to be the hugest party anyone's ever had."

I had been planning Sam's party for the last week, with the help of Peter. We rented out a venue, got numerous fake ID's, copious amounts of alcohol and a huge birthday cake. Sam had a lot of friends, so it took a solid two days to invite everyone. I invited some people I knew, as well. There was close to 200 coming. Some people from high school, some from college or university. This was literally going to be one of the biggest parties ever.

I still hadn't gone shopping for a dress… and since making some extra money from tips at Beans n' Crème, I decided I would treat myself today. Sam, like the typical rich girl with rich parents, had acquired at last 3 dresses for the nights. One for playing hostess, one for dancing, and one for cake-time.

I got her something small for her birthday, deciding that planning 90% of her birthday was a ig enough present already. I handed her a card and a little box.

She opened it, making squealing noises as she did so. When she saw the two small bracelets and necklace, she squealed even more. When we went shopping last week for her dresses, she obsessed over these pieces of jewelry in one of the magazines. The store clerk said they were out of stock until next week, but with the help of a little extra money and some bribing I paid for it to be shipped early.

"Thank you so much!" She pulled me into a tight, un-breathable, hug.

"You're welcome," I managed to get out.

After making her a lovely birthday breakfast, I let her finish her last party details while I went to shop. I was in dying need of a new dress and I knew just the place to shop. It was a half an hour walk to the store, but well worth it.

After saying a quick hello to the store clerk I immediately walked over to the racks labeled "Sale". _A Dash of Red _was by far my favorite dress store. Sam had bought her hostess dress here.

After half an hour of trying things on and taking things off I was practically ripping my hair out due to the frustration that I couldn't find anything.

"I think salmon is definitely more your color." I turned towards the voice, stunned when I didn't see someone in a work uniform ready to help me, but rather a man dressed in grungy, dirty clothes. There were holes and tears and them and he looked like he had just been in a fight. This man was in his around his late fifties early sixties and he looked familiar. I felt like I had seen him somewhere…

"Try it on." He shoved a salmon colored dress towards me. It was beautiful, really. But this man was straight up creepy. Why would he be helping me? In fact, why was he in a woman's dress store anyway?

I snatched the dress out of his hands and muttered, "Thanks…" as I walked away from him, shooting him a penetrating stare.

I looked at the dress and then back at him, and he was gone.

What the…?

I shook it off, and walked into the change room, putting it on.

It was beautiful. The shear, flowy, silky fabric full perfectly over my body. The short cocktail dress complimented my long legs. The shear lace fabric lay across the strapless top, like a lace t-shirt. It was embroidered with some sparkles and fake diamonds, making it stand out but not too much. Sam had a perfect pair of heels I could borrow to match this, some plain nude colored pumps. I actually thought I looked pretty, looking at myself in the dress, and so did the rest of the store apparently. The gasps and gawking eyes made me feel good.

I had no choice but to buy this dress. I had too. It was like it was made for me. How did that guy know my size? Well as eerie as that encounter was, I decided to buy the dress anyways, as well as a small silver clutch.

A smile was plastered across my face as I walked out of the store.

My ringtone blaring through my jeans pocket startled me.

I snatched the phone out of my pocket and held it to my ear.

"Hello?" I asked.

"I have no idea what to wear!" It was Peter, of course. "I mean, I've never really been to a party— or whatever this is. Do I dress up? Or wear something casual? What do I wear?"

"Pete!" I giggled, "Calm down. Stop worrying. Just wear something nice, a dress shirt maybe. Wear some dark pants and nice shoes and you're good to go. You look good in anything, trust me."

"You think so…?" He asked after a small pause.

"I know so." I assured.

"Okay. I have to go. See you at 8:30?"

"See you then, Pete." I smiled.

* * *

My heels (Which were really Sam's) clicked as I walked across the cold pavement. Sam and I entered the venue her parents rented out. It was nice, a little small, though. There was a bar in the corner, a dance floor with a giant disco ball in the middle of the room, and lots and lots chairs and tables. It paid to have rich parents like Sam. Boy, was I glad I was best friends with her.

People didn't start showing up until around nine. I was surprised when 9:30pm rolled around and there was no sign of Peter. He acted all nervous and cute about this, even somewhat excited, and for him to not show up was a disappointment. I called him a few times, but there was no answer.

Instead of moping around waiting for Peter, I decided to have fun. I ran over to the bar, grabbing a few drinks and chugging them.

"You might want to slow down…" The bartender suggested, but I didn't listen.

Drink after drink after drink after drink.

When I started to feel the effects of the alcohol a little while later, I walked to the dance floor. The music was blasting, there were strobe lights everywhere, and people I recognized from high school and college danced their butts off. And of course, not wanting to pass a good dance, I did too.

The room felt super hot and sticky, due to the amount of sweaty bodies around me. The loud thumping music made me feel thrilled inside. I could feel the bass in my chest, vibrating through me. The room reeked of cigarette smoke and booze.

The crush of people around me was like a suffocating ocean.

I kept dancing, swinging my body around, and my head couldn't take it. The dizziness was beginning to be too much, so I sat down. I watched as Sam danced with her new guy, Brandon. She looked like she was having the time of her life, a little drunk maybe, but still the time of her life.

"Stop the music!" She yelled a few moments later, stumbling into her boy's later. "Stop the music…" She slurred.

The DJ obeyed, and a bright spotlight was turned onto her.

"Shhh!" She hushed everyone, smiling. "Okay, okay. I just wanna say thank you to my bestest friend for doing this all for me. Not only are you t-the best roommate but you are the greatest sister I never had. Thank you so much!" She ripped off her heels and came stampeding towards me.

I took her with open arms and hugged her. I could smell the alcohol in her breath as she whispered "Thank you so much."

I just smiled, "You're welcome. Go dance!" I pushed her away.

The spotlight switched off and the music continued.

I smiled, looking at my best friend.

"Emily Taylor, right?"

I looked to the voice that had called to me.

It was a tall boy, his hair was buzz cut and his blue eyes stood out even in the dimness of this room. I recognized this face, it was Max Summers. He was in a few of my classes at Midtown High but I never talked to him. The only time I did was when he was my lab partner in Biology junior year.

I nodded, "Max Summers, how are you?"

"Wonderful, just enjoying the party." He smiled, "And you?"

"Good as well."

He smiled.

I gave him a small grin, and then scanned the room again, looking for Peter. There was still no sign of him. I glanced over at the entrance, but Peter wasn't there either. It wasn't like Peter to be late…

"Expecting someone?"

I looked to Max, biting my lip. "Kinda."

"Pffft." A playful expression was etched across Max's face, "If they stood you up they can't be that important."

I frowned.

"I bet you five bucks I could be better company than that guy."

I just rolled my eyes, but he didn't see.

"Come on," He grabbed my wrist but snatched it back.

He arched a brow at me and I folded my arms. When he started to walk away I followed, but kept distance.

"Two shots of the most expensive vodka you have." He said to the bartender, resting an elbow on the counter.

I smirked. Free alcohol, I was okay with that.

Once the bartender poured us drinks we counted to three, and then tossed back the clear liquid into the back of our throat.

I felt the cold liquid scorch down my throat, making the pit of my stomach feel burned when it reached it.

"Another?" He asked.

I nodded.

"See, I'm pretty good company, aren't I?"

"Well then there's free booze involved…" I whispered to myself.

"What?" His blue eyes pierced mine.

"Nothing," I shook my head, snatching up the other shot.

A few drinks later, I felt nauseous.

"Want to dance?"

I shook my head fervently Hell no. I was not dancing after that.

I slumped lower on the bar stool I sat on, leaning on the black, granite, counter for support. I watched as Max reached into the bowl on the bar and pulled out a handful of pretzels. He ate them slowly, one at a time.

I could feel the warmth of the alcohol running through me.

The noises around me sounded muffled, and I rested my head against the bar for comfort.

I looked around the room, at the dancing bodies, and the strobing lights, and I felt like I was seeing double. I couldn't remember the last time I had gotten drunk, and now I remember why it was so long ago.

It was a horrible feeling…

"Are you okay?"

I shook my sweaty forehead.

"Maybe you need a breath of fresh air…" He grabbed my waist and led me outside. I grabbed his shoulder for support.

The large doors squealed as we walked out into the dimly light alley beside the venue. There was no oe inside, nothing but a large green dumpster.

The fresh air felt better to breathe in. I gasped.

I leaned against the cold stone wall, pulling my heels off.

We were silent for a while.

After a minute passed, I decided to talk, breaking the awkward silence. "So do you go to school, or—"

His alcohol drenched lips crushed against mine and my head fell back against the stone wall.

I pushed him off of me. "What the—"

He came back, pressing his lips even harder against mine. I tried to wrench him off of me, but he was pretty strong. When I did manage to pull him off, I used as much strength as possible to slap him across the face.

"Are you fucking kidding me? What gives you the right to—"

"Come on…" he whispered, pressing his lips to my neck. He placed his hand on my thigh and slowly trailed it upwards.

"Get off of me!" I screamed. "Someone help me!"

"Shh." He warned.

I tried to get a good grip to throw him off but it was no use. This guy played football in high school. He was 6'2 and I was only 5'7.

He kept kissing my neck and I kept elbowing his abdomen.

"Help!" I screamed.

Like a prayer being answered, someone threw him off of me.

Max was now on the floor and Peter was on top, literally beating the crap out of him. Punch after punch. Blood trickled from the guys face.

"Peter!" I screamed. I grabbed his arm, lifting him up. His eyes were targeted on Max though. Peter was filled with pure rage. "Peter, let's go…" I whispered.

It took all my strength to pull Peter away from the alley and onto the street.

He was huffing with fury.

I clung onto his bicep, partially to keep him near me so he didn't go back, and partially to keep myself up so I didn't fall.

"Peter, are you okay?"

He looked up at me, "Am I okay? Am I okay? Are you okay?! You almost got raped!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Just a little spooked. And drunk…" I dug my nails into Peter tighter, feeling like I might fall. "Thank you for saving me."

He didn't say anything, just watched as his feet hit the pavement.

"You know, I didn't think you had that in you."

He smirked at my comment.

I grinned, glancing down. "So when did you arrive?"

"Well I saw you at the bar with him, that was when I first got there A few seconds later I saw you leave to go outside into the alley. I just assumed you were getting some fresh air but when you didn't come back for a while, I went to check on you."

I grinned wide, peering up at him. "Were you jealous?"

His head jolted up, "What? No. Of course not."

"You were totally jealous. Why else would you check on me and him?" I teased.

He just blushed, smiling.

That made me feel good inside. I think I was kind of developing some kind of crush to Peter. I probably wouldn't ever admit it to him, but I did.

A butterfly sensation expanded throughout me. It took me few seconds to realize it wasn't butterflies I was feeling, it was vomit.

My mouth started to water and I could sense what was about to happen next.

"Oh no…" I breathed.

"What?" Peter asked, "What is it? Are you okay?"

I let go of Peter's arm and covered my mouth with my hand. I dropped my high heels onto the pavement and started running, more like stumbling, towards my apartment.

My head was spinning, but I continued to run. Luckily we had already walked far enough that it was just around the corner. When I made it to the front entrance, I practically sprinted inside, taking the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator.

Not to self: Stairs is not an appropriate mode of transportation to home for a drunken person.

When I made it to my floor, I unlocked the door, leaving it wide open, and ran to the washroom. I could feel the bile filling my mouth but I had just made it to the toilet, thankfully. I heaved into the large white bowl, coughing every now and again.

There was a knock on the bathroom door and it creaked open.

"Emily?"

"Go away." I coughed, "Please," I said, puking again. I should have locked the front door. What was I thinking? Of course Peter would follow. That's just the type of nice guy he is.

Peter chuckled, opening the door. "I'm not leaving you like this." He sat down beside me, as I leaned over the toilet, and held my curly blonde hair out of my face.

I was vomiting for another five minutes, when I finally felt like I had disposed of every ingredient in my body.

Peter let go of my hair, and I wiped my face with a towel. I collapsed onto the cold, bathroom floor, and moaned.

"You didn't have to do that you know…" I said, pinching the bridge of my nose and shutting my eyes.

"I did, actually. Now I don't feel so bad about ditching you again."

"Why'd you ditch?" I ask.

"Something… came up."

"What came up?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why?" I asked, finally reopening my eyes.

"It's a long story."

"I have time."

"Well I was, uh, taking pictures of Spider-man for my boss. There was a shooting downtown and Spider-man came to the rescue. It was my first opportunity to send photo's to The Daily Bugle."

I frowned, my eyebrows knitting into a neat line. "You're lying. I may be drunk, but I still know you're lying, Peter."

He shook his head, "I'm not."

"Whatever," I shrugged, standing up.

I walked to the sink to brush my teeth.

It took a good three minutes before the minty taste drowned out the bile flavor.

"Thanks for doing- er- that." I said, referring to him holding up my hair.

"No problem," He smiled, walking out of the bathroom.

We walked to the living room and collapsed onto the sofa.

He blew out a large breath, sighing, as he turned on the television.

"Rough day?" I laughed, referring to his sigh.

"Totally" He smiled.

We watched television for a few minutes, watching Spider-man on the news as he swung from building to building, saving people, and capturing bad guys.

I relaxed into the sofa, and my hand accidently moved towards Peter's.

When his cold hand met mine, he moved it, avoiding touch again.

I rolled my eyes. This was so expected of Peter. He hated affection. I wasn't so sure anymore if it was because of Gwen, or because of some self reason that he hadn't told me about.

When he heard me yawn, he stood up from the couch. "Well I better go. Aunt May will be waiting up for me, like she always does."

"How come she does? I mean, not that it's a bad thing."

Peter licked his lips, his shoulders shrugging back. "Well, ever since Uncle Ben died, she won't rest until she knows I'm home safe."

"Hmm," I nodded, curious to how he Ben had passed. I stood up from the couch and followed Peter to the front door. "Well thanks again for saving me and doing the hair thing and what not…" I folded my hands together, holding them up to my face. I gave him a fake smile and batted my eyelashes. "You're my hero, Peter!" I sarcastically explained.

"Yeah, whatever Blondie." Peter chuckled, rolling his eyes.

My ears perked up. Only one other person had called me that and it was Spider-man. Their voices literally sounded the exact same. It was like they were the same person…"What did you just say?"

Peter's eyes darted back and forth, which made me suspicious, "Oh, uh, nothing."

"You just called me Blondie."

"Umm... Did I?"

"Yes. You did."

"Is that okay? Or…"

I gnawed on my lip, thinking this through a few times. There was no way he could be… but it was possible, wasn't it? "Yeah, I just— I'm really tired. I'm going to sleep."

"Oh, well I'm just going to head out then…"

"Sure, sure." I responded, not really paying attention to him.

He waved goodbye, and then departed the room.

Was it just the alcohol telling me this or was Peter Spider-man?

After changing into pajamas and brushing my teeth once more to rid the vile taste, I jumped into my bed, pulling the covers up to my neck. I grasped them tight. Peter couldn't be Spider-man. But it totally made sense. I mean, he was obsessed with spiders… His father worked at Oscorp Industries studying cross-species spiders. Peter was always disappearing whenever the sound of sirens were heard. He also had possible the most impeccable senses I've ever seen, almost un-human like. He left today because he was 'taking pictures of Spider-man', but how could he take pictures if he was Spider-man? I was going insane. There was no way. But it all made perfect sense… If there was a remote possibility he was, then that made sense why he wasn't at the party today, because he was out saving people. Now that I thought about it, terrible wounds always randomly appeared on him, like the black eye, and the burns. The burns like what Spider-man would have after saving a building full of people burning alive…

Could this be some crazy theory I made up in my head? Or was I just denying myself of the factual truth…

I would find out, one way or another.

And I wouldn't rest well until I did.

**A/N: Hello I hope you enjoy this chapter :) I probably wont update for a week and a bit because I'm going away! I really hope you enjoy this chapter, let me know what you want to see and what you hope for the next few chapters! Thanks for the reviews they're the only thing (as well as people following and favouriting) that makes me keep writing! Also, if anyone's good at photoshop feel free to create a cover photo for this story! Thanks again :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: So I decided to do an author's note at the beginning, so I could warm you that the point of view changes. I think you can guess when. Sorry this is such a short chapter! I've been away and I wanted to get this one up as soon as possible. Thank you for all your reviews, they're what keeps me writing! I hope you enjoy let me know your thoughts or what you want to see :) Thanks for reading. And remember to leave a review!**

**P.S: A big thank you to The Girl With No Life. She designed the cover photo and it is absolutely amazing!**

* * *

The first thing I did when I woke up the next day (After recovering from the worst hangover ever) was pull out my laptop and search the name:

**Ben Parker**

I waited a few seconds for my laptop to load.

When it finally did, I clicked on a police report about his death.

_Benjamin Parker was walking along 78th avenue before the manslaughter occurred.. Subject was searching for his nephew, Peter Parker, after a recent fight. After passing the Bob's convenient store, he was shot. Witnesses portray the man as having long blonde hair, just above his shoulders. He was wearing black and had a star tattooed on his wrist. The man supposedly stole 200$ and a case of beer from Bob's convenient store and ran off. Benjamin Parker had attempted to stop the thief. _

_Time and date of Death was 11:08pm on the 1st of February._

_Subject was shot in upper left portion of chest, killing him immediately._

_No arrests have been made._

I shuddered.

What a terrible way to die.

Peter must have been devastated. I hope he didn't blame himself, because he shouldn't Fight's happen all the time, it was just unlucky.

The part that made me curious was the fact that a little while after his death, Spider-man appeared. Could that have been linked? Maybe, if Peter was Spider-man, it had sparked something inside of him. Maybe that's why Spider-man saved people, because if it was Peter, he couldn't save his uncle.

The next name I searched was:

**Gwen Stacy**

_On the 21st of August Gwendolyn Stacy fell to her death._

_At around 10:54pm that night, Gwendolyn was at the abandoned clock tower, located near the power station. The anonymous Spider-man was attempting to save the city from Electro, also known as Max Dillon. In attempt to help, Gwendolyn went to the power station. Since she worked at Oscorp, she was familiar with the grid specs of the power station and was knowledgeable in resetting the entire system._

_There was only one known witness, Peter Parker, and he quotes, "I watched Spider-man fight Max Dillon, and then I saw Gwen walk up to the clock tower. I don't know what she was doing, maybe she was getting a better look. But then I heard a scream, a crash, and by the time I got there she was on the ground."_

_Loose gears as well as bars and stairs were found on the floor prior to Stacy's death._

_She had fallen, stepping on a loose step and her neck snapped due to the impact of hitting the floor._

"Peter…" I whispered to myself. A hand flew to my mouth, to stop the whimpers that were trying to escape. He had lost so many people. He didn't deserve that. A stray tear fell from my left eye, slowly falling down until it picked up enough speed and fell into my lap.

I started clicking through pictures of her, a memorial page on Midtown High school's website.

She was so beautiful.

My blonde hair and blue eyes resembled hers, actually.

I wish I had befriended Gwen and gotten to know her better.

A knock emerged from my bedroom door, causing me to slam my laptop shut and shove it underneath my bed.

"Hey," Peter poked his head through the crevasse of the door and my bedroom. "Sam let me in," He explained, "Are you okay?"

I relaxed when I saw his face, pulling one of my legs up to my chest and wrapping my arm around it. "Yeah."

He stepped into my room, shutting the door behind him, "Last night you were acting all weird."

"I was drunk."

Peter bit his lip.

"What do you want, Peter?" I asked eager to get back to my research. Being around him made me feel awkward. What if he was Spider-man…?

"I was just going to ask if you wanted to um— or maybe you know we could… Or we could uh— " He quirkily rubbed the nape of his neck, his brown eyes peeking through the messy brown hair.

I licked my lips, standing up from my bed, "Um, sure." I tied my hair into a ponytail, unwrapped myself from the blanket burrito I was in, and grabbed my purse. "Let's go," I said, leading him anywhere but in my room in case he checked my laptop.

We walked onto the main road in silence, which was surprising for us. We were literally best friends and always had something to talk about. I couldn't help being so awkward about the situation though…

We walked to Bean's n Crème, ordering our usual coffees. I had booked the weekend off for Sam's birthday, which they were okay with.

"Thanks," I said after he paid for my coffee.

He gave me a huge grin, which reminded me off the first smile he gave me that day at work. "No problem."

"Can I ask you something?" We sat down outside on the cold metal chairs. I shivered, pulling my knit scarf tighter around me.

"You just did," He smirked.

I shook my head, smiling, "No, I mean, well— how come you decided to talk to me that day at work?"

He shrugged, "I could ask you the same thing."

"You looked miserable," I replied, "You looked so lost, and like you needed a friend. But, hey, you were the one who followed me to go alarm clock shopping."

"I did not stalk you!"

"I never said stalk." I giggled.

His laugh faded, "I don't know. You just kind of reminded me of Gwen. Long blonde hair, 5'7, and etcetera."

Was that a compliment? Should I be happy…? "Oh."

He took a sip of his coffee, avoiding eye contact with me. "Yeah, but you're nothing like her."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. You're so adventurous and I like that. And your personality is so wayward, which isn't a bad thing. I feel like we're pretty similar in that way. Like whenever you say something I just feed off of you. You're larger-than-life personality keeps me away from all the shit in my life. That's why I stick around you, I guess. And you're definitely thick-skinned which is nice, because you get my ridiculous jokes that aren't funny, I know that they aren't. You're just laughing to be polite."

"Meh, some of them are funny," I teased.

He rolled his eyes, and I let him continue. I liked hearing about myself. "Sometimes I want to kill you and your sarcasm. Well; most of the time I want to kill you because of your sarcastically witty remarks, but hey, you're not that bad." He smirked to himself, "Because you also have this compassionate side to you, you know? I like that." He smiled.

I flushed red. I'd never heard Peter talk about me like that. It made me giddy inside. I felt my heartbeat pick up. It thudded so loudly that I actually considered that Peter might have heard it. I couldn't find my words to say anything nice back without embarrassing myself, so I just used my sarcasm to charm him, "Peter Parker? Being nice?"

He rolled his eyes, "Whatever," and beamed at me.

"In all seriousness though, that was pretty sweet, Pete." I looked down at my hands, interlocking them together. My palms felt sweaty.

"I know."

I felt myself blushing.

When the blaring noise of police cars skidded by us, I watched Peter jolt up, as expected. He pulled out his phone, "I have to go. Spider-man's spotted in Times Square. Can I take a rain check on this?"

I nodded, smiling. I wasn't smiling at the fact he wanted to hang out again, although that made me pleased, I was smiling because this was my chance. Instead of letting Peter run off, I would follow him.

When I saw him slip his backpack over his shoulder and sprint off towards the sirens, I followed him. I watched him dart street down street, and then he stopped in the quietest alley I had ever seen in New York.

I hid behind the stone wall, waiting for him to come back out.

But he never came back.

When I peered around the corner, all that was left was a backpack, zipper only half closed. I scanned the alley, making sure no one was there, and then trotted over to it.

I unzipped it to divulge a white t-shirt, jeans, and Peter's famous black sneakers. It was the exact same outfit he was wearing just moments ago.

Unless he miraculously got kidnapped, and the mugger left his clothes, in the span of ten seconds, then I highly doubted Peter wasn't Spider-man. It was pretty obvious.

This made everything clear, seeing his backpack full of clothes.

Peter always left unannounced because he was saving the rest of the city. He was aiding to innocent people that needed his help.

So Peter was, in fact, Spider-man.

It wasn't just some drunken theory I made in my head.

All I could think of when I walked home is how un-similar the two are. Peter was so shy and kept to himself. He was a complete nerd, and his life revolved around skateboarding and science. Spider-man seemed so courageous and out-going. I guess he could act however he wanted when he had that mask on. No one knew he was, he was anonymous.

So Peter Parker was Spider-man…

Should I tell him? No. What was I supposed to say? He would probably run off if he knew I knew. Pete was just that type of guy. He would do it to keep me safe, I know that, but I didn't want Peter to leave.

As far as he's concerned, I know nothing of him being Spider-man.

And it would stay that way, until he decides he's ready to tell me, if that ever happens.

I hope it would.

* * *

_Dr. Hendrix couldn't believe he had done it. He had finally created a serum that would bring back his hearing, no thanks to Dr. Taylor._

_He was the one who caused all this. At least, he was the only one to blame._

_The lab explosion had caused the loss of most of his hearing. Science experiments cost a price and he wasn't talking about money. He was sick of the endless surgeries, the new hearing aids; he felt a lot older then he should have. _

_It wasn't even his fault. It was David Taylor's fault. _

_They weren't even supposed to be in the lab. It was after hours. But they were so close… They were so close to accomplishing the perfect serum to inject into humans for human testing next week. They were attempting to take an opossum's lethal toxin neutralizing factor protein to help with the immunity of lethal venom injections such as snake bites, scorpions, bee stings, and etcetera. They had injected the LTNF protein into rats, and it was successful in granting the rodents immunity to otherwise lethal venoms but they needed to make it compatible with humans. Next thing you know, they mixed a wrong chemical and the whole section of Oscorp blew up in flames._

_He told him to wait. He dictated him to wait for Doctor Connor's holler. But no, David wasn't patient. He thought that if he didn't take the chance and mix the two serums and the chemical together, that they would run out of time and it would be ineffective._

_As a result, he lost his hearing; Curt Connors lost his arm and the only thing David Taylor lost was his patches of skin in his leg, and maybe his position as head Cross-Species Genetic Biological scientist. They were able to repair most of his leg, make it look normal, but Dr. Hendrix? He would never get his hearing back._

_Until now._

_He could hear the laughter of children as he passed, the sound of quite chatter as he passed a coffee shop on the corner, the cry of a girl who had just scraped her knee falling on the sidewalk, the busy honks of inpatient drivers on United Boulevard. It was amazing._

_But that wasn't the only thing he heard. He could hear a woman shout at her husband in the apartment building down the block, he could hear a car accidently rear end the city bus down the street, and he could hear a dog barking inside a parked SUV by the coffee shop he passed two blocks ago._

_He could hear better than any human. _

_How was this possible?_

_He didn't understand, but he liked it._

_He just prayed it didn't turn out like Curt Connor's experiment. We didn't need another giant lizard roaming New York City._

_He would just have to keep injecting the serum every so often, like a flu shot. Once every few days should do it. And once he was out, he would run back to Oscorp, apologize for his unannounced leave of absence, and use the facilities that were accessible to him._

_It was so blissful to hear loud noise again. _

_But part of him had this rage inside of him._

_This rage grew and grew. He was fuming with fury. What if this injection changed him? Dr, Taylor was to blame. It was his entire fault. It was only a matter of time before he got his revenge. _

_He was like a kettle boiling; he could feel the madness bubbling through him._

_He could feel the blood rise to his cheeks._

_His normally calm and pleasant demeanor slowly changed and his face contorted in an all - consuming anger._

_David Taylor would pay for the 10 years of silence he suffered._

* * *

_"Another missing person's report goes out to Diana Springfield. The 48 mark ended an hour ago. She was last seen leaving her home in Forest Hills. She is 21 years old, with brunette hair and looking to be about 135lbs. She was last seen wearing black pants and a black sweater. She is 5'8 but is sustained to a wheelchair. Manufacturing number 3408. This is NYC News with Rob Martin, Good Afternoon New York."_

I flicked the television off, turning to Sam and Peter. "That's the second missing person's report this week." I shivered, "Think there's some crazy psycho murderer roaming around New York?"

Peter smirked, laughing a bit.

"They're not going to find her. Nor are they going to find that other dude, or the Doctor." Sam shrugged.

I thought about Dr. Hendrix, one of the scientists my father worked with. It made me speculate if the three cases were connected. You never knew in a town as big as NYC. It could have been a complete coincidence, or it could have been a kidnapping spree. "You don't think so?" I questioned, although I knew she was right.

She shook her head. "Finding a specific person in New York is like finding hay in a needle stack."

Peter burst out laughing.

I giggled too, "Um, I think it's the other way around, Sam."

"Whatever," She rolled her eyes. "I'm heading to my room to study for exams. I suggest you two do the same." She pointed two fingers at Peter and I while we lolled over the immense couch. Peter had been over all morning, and it was starting to hit noon. I was still in my pajamas when he showed up with McDonalds breakfast.

He had been ignoring my calls and texts the last few days, which I secretly knew why, so he decided to make up for it today.

He was always so busy lately, and I wasn't talking about studying for exams. He never came into my work anymore, he was always staying up late (Probably because he was saving damsel's in distress that decided a late night walk would be nice) and whenever I saw him the purple bags under his eyes seemed to deepen. The only time I saw him in the past week was when I visited for dinner at his and May's. Even then, May invited me, not Peter.

It would be nice in a few weeks when exams ended and winter break started. It would give him one less thing to stress about.

I still really couldn't wrap my head around the idea that he was Spider-man. I had to see him in action, watch for the similarities between him and Peter.

I was waiting for the perfect opportunity.

"She's right," Peter started, standing up on the couch, "We should really start studying."

I nodded. "I haven't even started my film notes. We're supposed to digitally design something in the span of two hours for media class, like a logo for a fake company. I don't even have an idea of what to do yet."

Peter smirked, pulling on his hoodie, "Well if I think of anything I'll let you know."

I gave him a glum closed-lipped smile. "Thanks".

The stress was starting to hit me now and I wasn't very fond of it.

"See you when you don't look so stressed about exams?"

I nodded giving him a small smile. "See you when you get a little more sleep," I suggested, watching the purple bags deepen in color by every second.

"I'm fine." He shook off my comment.

I rolled my eyes and opened the door. I pressed my hand to his back and pushed him out the door, "GO take a nap, Parker."

"I'm seriously fine, Em."

"Go," I smiled, nodding outside.

"Okay," He yawned, walking out of Sam and I's apartment.

I shut the door, and found myself smiling, no, beaming. That boy just had this effect on me. No matter what, he always made me happy, joyful. I was thankful to have him in my life. Sometimes I wished he wouldn't push me away so much, but I understood the reason why he did. He was fearful of getting close to someone and then losing them, like with Gwen.

To be honest, I think we had gotten extremely close already. If we had gotten any closer, it wouldn't make a difference.

Part of me wanted to be more with Peter, but the other part of me knew it would **_never _**happen.

The knowledge of that left a little hole in my heart.

It ached for him, but I would just have to live with Peter's choices. I would rather have him then not at all.

"You're in love with him."

My feet whipped around to the voice. Sam stood there, arms crossed over her chest with a sly smile.

"What?" I shook my head, "No, no. I'm not."

"You totally are in love with him."

"I'm not, Sam." I narrowed my eyes at her, biting my lip. "I've only known him a few months."

"You've known him waaaaaay longer than that."

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, but, I mean, I've only gotten close with him now."

"So, you're still in love with him." She grinned.

"I'm not. I can assure you that." My heart started to flutter as we talked about being in love with Peter.

"Well you must feel something for him!" She threw her hands in the air.

I bit my lip. I did feel something for Peter, but I wasn't so sure if he felt the same way…

"Oh my God!" Her grin expanded, "You do! You like Peter."

"No." I shook my head, "No no!"

"You do! You like Peter." She chimed, clapping her hands together in excitement. "I'm so happy!"

"Please, no. Don't say anything to Peter."

"I won't" She smiled, crossing her arms again.

"I knew it."

I rolled my eyes, starting towards my room.

"He likes you too, you know."

I shook my head, "Don't be silly, Sam."

"I'm serious. The way he looks at you when you're watching the television, the way he smiles whenever he hears your voice, it's pretty clear."

I shook my head.

"I can tell because—"

She stopped.

"Because what?" I pushed.

She licked her lips, "Because he used to look at Gwen that way."

My gaze fell to the floor. Could what she was saying be true?

"He would never like me. Or at least, he would never admit it anyways. I think he's too scared to love someone again. He's too afraid to lose them."

"Well, maybe he can make an exception." She game a small smile, before descending into the kitchen.

I pondered about her words, taking them in as I headed to my bedroom and pulled out my notes. Maybe I was his exception.

I hope I would be his exception.


	7. Chapter 7

I felt the relief practically pore out of me as I exited the room of my last exam. It was the digital art project. I designed a logo for a New York City Comic book store, with the prime theme being Spiderman. I knew that would get me extra marks, considering my professor was practically in love with the concept of Spider-man.

I skipped along the sidewalk, making my way to the subway station. It was freezing outside. The first snowfall hadn't occured yet, but I could feel it was coming soon.

When I hopped on the subway, I thought about my project. I was pretty proud of it. My design consisted of Spiderman, slouching as he sat on top of a tall sky scraper. His mask was in his hand, while his shaggy brown hair blew in the wind. The psychedelic red and blue sunset in the background was a nice touch. I made it to look like a comic book, with the store's name being the title of the comic. It was outlined in black, which brought out the boldness of it.

I hadn't realized until now, while I was looking at the printed version of it, that I had almost replicated Peter's features. It completely looked like Peter, only you couldn't see his face, just his back.

Although, I was particularly excited to show him. He had never gotten back to me about an idea. I wasn't to upset though, I knew he was studying and saving New York. It was hard to balance hanging out with friends and saving people, let alone. Adding exams to the matter was even more difficult, not to mention his new job. How did he even take photos of himself in action? I don't know.

I had seen his photo's on the front page of the daily bugle, and they were stunning. The way he positioned the camera to perfectly capture himself in action was astounding.

What made me happiest the most was seeing the, 'Photo taken by: Peter Parker' written in tiny letters at the bottom of the photo.

He was amazing at photography, as well as science.

He was a man of knowledge.

I found myself passing my stop, and heading towards Peter's house. I wanted to check on him, I needed my daily dose of Peter.

It was a twenty minute walk after the subway station. Usually I didn't mind, but it was getting dark, and considering it was winter, I wasn't very warm.

I sucked it up though.

The walk felt a lot longer than usual, but I was eager to see Peter. I had communicated with him for just under two weeks.

The cold air brushed against my skin, sending shivers up my spine as I walked along the sidewalk. I turned the last corner on to a quieter street and made my way to house #36. I walked up to the glass door with curtains draped over them, knocking a few times. It was getting late, but not too late. Someone had to be home, whether it was May or Peter. Preferably I hoped it would be Pete. The door creaked open to reveal Peter's lovely Aunt. "Well hello Emily! What a pleasant surprise"

"Hello, May." I smiled, putting my hands in my pocket. "Is Peter home?"

"Is he ever home?" His Aunt sighed depressingly. "I thought he was with you."

I shook my head.

"He said he was with you. He's always out with you, lately anyways." She licked her lips, "Well, he's probably doing… whatever it is he does."

I was assuming Peter was using me as an excuse to his Aunt while he secretly saved lives. I didn't mind, I just wished that he actually saw me.

"Oh," I said pretending to remember something for the sake of May, "I just remembered he said something about meeting him for pizza! How could I forget?"

May seemed a little less worried now, "You better hurry then." She said after a few smiling seconds.

I nodded, pivoting my body to the footsteps. "Goodbye, May."

"Wait, Emily." I turned back to May, who was encompassed in seriousness. "Can I ask you a favor?"

That surprised me… Not that I wouldn't do a favor for her. I would do anything for this angelic woman. "Of course," I responded, "Anything."

"You care about Peter a lot, right?"

What was she getting at…?

"More than anyone besides my own family"

"Then can you promise me something?"

"Yes."

"Please, don't leave Peter. I haven't seen Peter this happy in months. He likes you, a lot... He just doesn't know it yet. And I know you like him. Just promise me you'll stick around because I don't know what will happen if he loses you too."

It took me a solid few seconds to take in the sincerity and the pleading of her words. "I promise, May."

"Thank you," She said, folding her hands together in front of her face. "You're all Peter ever talks about. You make him happy, and it's nice to see him happy again. Just remember, no matter how much he tries to push you away, like he does with everyone, just be stubborn and don't let him. That's the only way he'll get it through his head."

I nodded.

"It's like he feels like he doesn't deserve to be happy… But he does, more than anyone."

* * *

More than anything, Sam and I needed a night out. Trust me; I was beyond ecstatic about it too, for once. We had our whole night planned out. First, dinner at this cute little Pho restaurant in Times Square, and then maybe a little late night shopping. It was hitting seven o'clock and I had just finished putting on a casual beige dress along with my scarf and jacket.

Sam had offered to pay for dinner, which I was thankful for. Food was not cheap in New York and I was running a little low on money after recovering from Sam's birthday and trying to pay for next semester's tuition fees.

The phone ringing interrupted my growling stomach. I picked it up, eagerly anticipating that it was Peter, I didn't even check the caller ID.

"Hello?!"

"Emma hunny!" Mom.

I sighed, "Hey mom."

"Why do you sound so disappointed?"

"Oh- uh nothing. Its just… Sam and I are about to go out for dinner."

I admit I was happy to hear her; just disappointed Peter hadn't talked to me in weeks. I thought after finals were over we'd talk again. There had been a lot of crime going on lately, with the holidays approaching, so maybe that's why he hadn't talked to me.

My mom's voice lightened up. "Well I'll make it quick honey."

"Make what quick?"

"Our surprise."

"What surprise?"

"We're coming home honey!" I heard my dad cheer in the background.

"What?" I felt my heart stutter and happiness waved over me. "You are? For Christmas?" I smiled to myself, running a hand through my hair as I talked to her.

"Yes! Well. Sort of. We're flying in in a few days and we're leaving for Australia Christmas morning."

"Ah…" I sighed, "Well at least I get to see you in the morning."

"Yes. Now, we'll be staying at the old apartment for the majority of the time we are there. It's a little far from you're apartment but we'll make do. Now go have fun with Sam!"

"Okay, thanks mom!"

"You're welcome. Good bye sweetie, we love you!"

"Love you too," I smiled as I hung up the phone.

I get to spend the holiday's with my parents, and I couldn't be more happy. I couldn't bear hanging out with Sam's enormous family. Her three siblings and parents were just too much for me.

Sam eventually came to my room and dragged me out to the car as I finished my last make up touches. It took us a little while to drive there because of the traffic on a Friday night, but we made it.

Sam could clearly see something was on my mind because after we walked into the restaurant, the first thing she said when we sat down was, "What's wrong?"

I sighed, "Nothing."

"Is it Parker?"

"What? No." I shook my head, "Well, kind of…"

She smiled, folding her hands in front of her and resting her petite chin on it as her hair fell to her chest.

I just blushed, "We haven't talked in a while. I thought after exams we would talk again, but I guess he's been extremely busy."

"Have you tried calling him or texting him?"

I nodded, "Even went over there."

"I'm sure he's just busy. I wouldn't worry. Maybe he made some other friends besides you," She grinned.

I rolled my eyes with a smile as I leaned back in my chair. "You don't think he's ignoring me, right?"

Sam's face morphed into a serious structure. She leaned forward, "Hun, I can promise you he is not ignoring you. I don't think someone could pay him to ignore you."

"I'm not so sure about that…" I whispered to myself, biting my lip. I couldn't help but think of Spider-man in this situation, instead of Peter. I didn't want him ignoring me to protect me.

"So," I said, after a while of digging into our food, "How are you and Brandon?"

"Good," Sam smiled, like a little boy in a candy store. "Really good. I have a really good feeling about this guy, Em. He's going to meet my family on the weekend. Oh! Will you come? Please? My family loves you?"

I tried to smile about it, although I dreaded having dinner with her family, as lovely as they were. Last time I went for dinner it literally ended in a food fight. Carter and Andrew (her brothers) started a food fight last time. It took me a lengthy time to get the spaghetti sauce out of my hair.

"Of course, Sam."

"Yay!" She clapped, "You can bring Parker."

"If he decides to talk to me…" I said through a mouthful of food.

"He will." She assured.

I wasn't so sure if I believed her words, though.

When a scream eradicated throughout the restaurant, I whipped my head towards it. A woman, late 40's maybe, let out a blood-curdling shriek as she pointed outside the window.

"Oh my God…." Sam breathed, "What is that?"

I followed her gaze, throughout the large tinted windows, and saw it.

It was a beast.

It stood at least fifteen feet tall. Its furry form thrashed around the square. I observed as its claws dug into the ground and his nose scrunched up, snarling. Its teeth were bared and he looked ready to kill.

Unlike everyone else, I dashed straight out there, watching as the civilians fled and the police cars arrived.

This beast looked like some sort of giant wolf, but its body was distorted and its spine protruded out of it so far that it hunched over, appearing to have some kind of limp with it. The beast clawed the ground, leaving giant tears of rock in the cement.

His mouth opened wide, spit flying everywhere, and he let a growl rip from his chest. I had to cover my ears with my hands, afraid of damaging them.

I wasn't sure if this was just some Oscorp experiment gone wrong, or if there was some kind of actual human being in there. Either way, it wasn't a pretty site.

The police were struggling to evacuate everyone.

When the giant wolf like creature slammed down its furry hands on the ground, the earth shook beneath me. I couldn't stand, I couldn't even crawl. The grey concrete split like a bolt of lightning.

Just as I regained my strength, leaning on a nearby police car, he raised his fists to the air and slammed them against the pavement. He was like a Gorilla. I flew back due to the impact and hit my head on the windshield of the car. I groaned, but rolled over and collapsed onto the cold, broken, pavement. I felt my head bleed a little, but not enough to send me to the hospital again.

It was then that I realized my palms were covered in shards of glass.

"Shit…" I breathed, trying to pick them out of my bloody palms.

The wolf man began to stir again, taking giant leaps and howling like there was no tomorrow.

The screams of pedestrians and the cries of people sent shivers through me. People were hurt…

The wolf man took giant leaps, until he paused facing a small child.

The little boy clutched a stuffie, one that looked like Spider-man. He squinted his eyes shut and a tear fell from his eyes. His body trembled from fear and he sniffled.

I had to help this boy. I had to help him.

His mother cried from a distant, screaming the boy's name. "JOSEPH!" She cried, "JOSEPH!" Two police men held her back, protecting her from the vicious creature that stood in front of her son.

The creature just stared at the boy, though. Not attacking, not biting, no blood, just stared. He huffed, spit drooling from his mouth.

"Spider-man…" I heard the boy say. "Spider-man!" Silence hushed over the large crowd hid behind the police barricade. And then, they chanted to.

"Spider-man. Spider-man. Spider-man." His name was like a prayer.

A prayer that the wolf man wasn't fond of.

He snapped out of his trance and snarled at the boy.

The boy cried, clutching his stuffed Spider-man tighter.

That was when I had to take action. Someone had to help him. Spider-man was running a bit late apparently…

I scanned my area, making sure no cops could stop me, and then sprinted to the boy. The creature took a shaky step towards the boy, unpleased with the name he was chanting. He was growling, snarling, and the boy, Joseph, continued to cry.

I sprinted, running to save this boy's life. The only thing that gave me hope to keep going was the chanting of Spider-man's name.

I was just a few feet away…

I took one more step, and snatched the boy into my arms. He dropped his stuffed Spider-man, but I didn't even hesitate to go back and grab it. The roar that ripped from the animal's chest was too sadistic.

I ran, following wherever my feet took me.

I wasn't running towards the barricaded crowd, I didn't want to draw attention to them. I ran away from them, and the wolf.

The boy clutched onto me, so I didn't have to worry about holding him to tightly. He was light, luckily. He looked around 4 or 5.

"It's okay." I told him, "You're going to be fine," but I wasn't even sure if I could believe my own words.  
The thundering footsteps behind me told me differently. I was going to die… We weren't going to be okay.

It wasn't until I heard the cheering discontinue did I stop dashing. I slowed to a stop and turned around. It was Peter. It was so good to see him after all this time, but I couldn't say anything. He couldn't know I knew.

He swung from building to building until he made his way over to us. "I got it from here, Blondie." I could hear the smile beneath his mask. "I think you dropped this, buddy." He held out the dirty Spider-man stuffie to the boy, and the boy was bug eyed. He smiled, taking the stuffie from his hands.

I just held on to the boy tighter, watching Spider-man.

"Take him to his mom, I got it from here." Spider-man webbed off, towards the wolf-man.

I sprinted back to the large crowd, handing the boy back to his mother. "Oh thank you! Thank you…." She cried, tears streaming everywhere. "God bless you." She held her son, and didn't let him go.

I smiled, it felt good risking my life. I almost died, but I saved a boy.

The woman gave me a hug, and I felt the wetness of her face. I just smiled even wider, I could understand what Spider-man felt from saving people now.

I turned around, watching the fight ensue.

"What is this? An episode of teen wolf?" Peter joked, dodging a fist that was being thrown at him. He did it so casually. Almost to causally. The wolf ended up throwing another punch and brutally slamming Peter into a glass building, which shattered beneath him. But he got a good grip on the monster after and ended up webbing his feet together, and got a chance to hit him square in the face. I watched as his face rippled. It showed how much strength Peter truly had. No doubt he had broken something.

He yelped in pain, spitting black blood from his dirty mouth, and turned back to Peter. His eyes were dark, and angry. He growled, giving us a bad whiff of dog breath. "WHERE IS TAYLOR…" He growled.

I froze. All of me froze. I felt numb. BY the looks of it, Spider-man was quite the same.

What did he mean by Taylor? Was he referring to a first or last name? Either way, I was petrified.

Peter went to through another punch when he regained himself, but something had stopped him in his tracks. Spider-man, along with everyone else in Times Square, watched as the creature started to shriek in pain. He started to claw the ground, leaving giant marks in the pavement. Everyone was so confused.

What was happening to him?

He screamed, louder and louder, and then howled.

His skin started to shed, and it was disgusting. He was no longer as hairy, but he still stood tall. He loomed over the crowd of people still. Human features started to manifest itself, and my previous question was now answered.

He howled one last time, and then ran off on all fours. His speed was un-human like.

Spider-man looked back to the crowd, eyed me, and then back to the hairy beast. I know what he was thinking... He was thinking like Peter right now. He wanted to go after him. But that was a death wish. Peter attached one of his webs to the side of a building and positioned himself for takeoff.

"PETER!" I screamed in defense, but immediately regretted it. Shit Shit Shit…. A hand flew to my mouth, covering it. I prayed the crowd, nor he, didn't hear.

But of course he did.

He pivoted to look at me. He cocked his head questioningly, and detached his web from the building.

"Shit.." I said aloud now.

I spun away from him and started to run from him, wanting to avoid any confrontation with him.

He knew.

He knew that I knew.

I sprinted, like I had many times today.

But Spider-man was faster than anyone.

In the next few seconds I found myself flying through my air. Peter clutched his arm around my body and shot webs with the other.

"Put me down!" I protested as we departed from the scene that just took place.

"You knew." He yelled over the roaring wind that passed by us. "You knew and you didn't tell me."

I tried to close my eyes, feeling dizzy as we swung from building to building.

I could feel his muscles working underneath the spandex costume, I could even see them. I clutched myself closer to him, seeing how far down the fall was.

When I felt us stop, I reopened my eyes. We were on the fire escape of my building. I opened the window and crawled through to my room.

Peter followed.

I sat on my bed, and he paced the room.

He ripped off his mask, dropping it to the floor. I could see the sweat and dirt on his face from the fight that had just occurred.

"How long have you known?" He breathed.

"A while..."

He raised his hands to his head, gripping his hair with fists. "Why didn't you say anything?"

I rolled my eyes, "What am I supposed to say, Pete? 'Hey Peter, by the way, I know your spider-man. So how was your day?'"

"Yes!" He threw his hands in the air. "Yes you could have said that!"

"Well sorry…" I breathed.

He sighed, taking a seat beside me. "When did you find out?"

I gnawed on my split lip, feeling the rusty taste of blood. "When you called me Blondie. When you called me that as Peter, I mean."

His gaze fell to the floor. "I knew it… I knew I messed up then…"

"Can I ask you something?"

His downcast eyes remained, but he nodded.

"Were you ever going to tell me? Or were you just going to keep it a secret?"

He finally raised his eyes to mine. "Honestly…." He shrugged, "I don't know."

"So what, were you just going to hide it from me this whole time?"

"Maybe…"

I fiddled with my hands in my lip, scared for what was to come. "So what now?"

I felt him stir beside me and I jolted up. "I have to go…" He breathed.

"Where are you going?"

"I just need time…"

"Peter," I grabbed his wrist, trying to stop him as he headed towards my window. "Don't leave."

"_Don't make the same mistake…_" I hardly heard him say it. It was just a whisper. It's like he was telling himself these words, not directing them at me. He was reminding himself of something.

"What? What do you mean?" I narrowed my eyes. "Peter, you haven't talked to me in weeks. Please, don't leave." I had just seen him, and he was already leaving. Maybe for good, this time.

He looked at me with painful eyes, and threw my wrist off of him. "Bye, Emily."

"Peter, please don't leave!" I cried, feeling my face heat up and the tears start to form. He was going to leave. "Why are you so mad?" A single tear trickled down my face, "I don't understand… I'm so confused."

"I-I'm not mad… I'm mad at myself. The same thing's going to happen…"

"What?" I cocked my head at him, hardly able to see him through the blurry tears. "Pete…"

"I shouldn't have let this happen…"

"What do you mean Peter!" I finally cried, allowing the tears to pool over.

"Do you want to know what really happened to Gwen?" He raised his voice. I had never seen Peter like this… "Do you really want to know?"

I took a step away from him, but nodded.

"She died. Because of me." Raging tears filled his eyes, but he pushed them back. His teeth gritted as he looked to me. "It was my fault."

I let my fingertips touch his forearm. "Peter... It wasn't your fault."

"You don't know that!" He yelled.

I just sniffled, looking at him with mourningful eyes.

"You don't know that…" He repeated. "I let her die. I was supposed to save her… I saved everyone but I couldn't save her."

I just wiped my face with my sleeve, waiting for him to continue.

"I basically killed Gwen, you get that, right? I've already lost people for just _being_ who I am, being in a close proximity. S-She fell… She fell from the clock tower because of Harry..." Harry? I shook the name off and continued to listen. "And I tried to save her but it was too late. Her neck snapped and I couldn't save her…"

"Peter…"

His eyes were glued to mine. "I got too close to you Emily. The same thing's going to happen. And I've moved on from Gwen. I've accepted the fact that she's dead. I've managed to let her go…." He ran a hand through his hair, "But you? YOU? I can't let you go…" He shook his head look a wounded puppy, a few stray tears falling. "I can't. I can't lose you too."

"Peter, the same thing won't happen."

"I have enemies, Emily."

"I-I know that."

"Do you know how they'll kill me? By killing the people I care about. And that's you and Aunt May." His grief-stricken face killed me inside. His lip quivered and the corners of his lips quirked downward.

"You're a hero Peter, I get that. And I think you're amazing for it. But you can't just push me away. Was that your plan? To one day just get rid of me?" He was making me mad now.

"That was never my intention…"

I squeezed my lips into a tight line, trying to focus on him. "Well what would you have done? You're Spider-man, I get it. I love it. But does that have to change who you are? Who we are together? You have to live your life still Peter…"

"Every day I wake up knowing that no matter how many lives I protect, no matter how many people call me a hero, _someone even more powerful could change **everything**_. One day something could happen to you, just like it did to Gwen. I can't face that again, Emily."

"Just go, then."

"What?"

"Just go, Peter. Please."

His eyes were filled with confusion, but he obeyed my words, "Okay…"

"You keep pushing me away, over and over again…" I was giving him what he wanted. An out.

"I'm sorry, Em." The nickname that once used to make my heart flutter now made my depressed. "I just can't lose you. If keeping you safe and alive means never talking to you again, then I'll do whatever it takes." He avoided eye contact with me but stayed in my room, his feet planted to the floor. "I'm sorry." He said, once more, before picking up his mask and taking off.

As soon as he left, I broke down into a puddle of tears. He was gone, Peter was gone.

I don't know if I would ever talk to him again.

May had warned me about this. I know knew why he left. He was trying to protect me. He **_thought _**he was protecting me, but he wasn't. May was right; he just continuously pushed people away. He was too stubborn to open up to people, because he was fearful. He felt that if he opened up to someone, he would lose them. Because he's not just Peter Parker, he's Spider-man.

I crawled into my bed, pulling the sheets over me.

_"I'm sorry…"_ His words echoed in my brain like a faded memory.

**A/N: Hello readers :) Thank you so ever much for reading and reviewing it makes my day! I hope you like this chapter, its just a little taste of the new villain! I know he's kind of a cliche villain but I have a plan. If you don't like it you don't have to read it! And the fight at the end is also cliche but expected. Peter is definitely someone who tries to protect people, no matter what, so that fight needed to happen! It would be pointless if not. Anyways read review and tell me what you think! :) Thanks for your amazing feedback already.**


	8. Chapter 8

They cleaned up most of the disastrous wreckage in Times Square, but I couldn't help shake the memories off as I walked by it after work. Every crack of cement symbolized the wolf's large claws crashing down. It was terrifying, and to know he hadn't been caught was even more petrifying.

Walking was a common ritual I did, now.

Walks helped clear my mind.

I would normally hang with Peter but he hadn't talked to me the previous week. Although, I felt like he was still _there_. Like he was always watching me. That might have something to do with the fact he was swinging around the city in a spandex suit.

My parents were back, for a while anyways. I met up with some friends, including Sam, at a small café near times square.

But as usual, my mind wasn't on the topic of cute college kids, or that heart-wrenching chick flick about a cancer-stricken patient, it was on Peter.

Not only Peter, but May.

Would she be disappointed in me for letting Peter go? I couldn't help it. And I tried calling him a few times, but I knew I was too late. There was no changing Peter's mind. Whatever blossoming relationship we had was dead now. I would never forgive myself for that.

I had almost accepted the fact that I would never talk to Peter again, although it was hard.

"Em?" A pale white hand swam across my vision, "Earth to Emily, are you in there?"

"Huh?" I broke the gaze from my coffee cup and looked to my friend, Isaac.

He just gave me a funny look. He almost looks worried. Instead of saying anything to me, he turned to Sam, as if she was my care taker now.

He whispered, "Is something wrong with her?" And I witnessed Sam shrug.

"You know," I sighed, leaning back in my chair, "I'm not deaf."

"You were a few seconds ago," Sam contradicted.

"I-I was deep in thought." I stuttered, profusely blinking my eyes.

Sam rolled her eyes, groaning. "You're always deep in thought."

I shrugged, "I'm sorry," I said it, almost like a whisper.

As Isaac and Nina talked to themselves, Sam leaned closer to me, resting on the big burgundy armchair I sat on. "You need to move on, Emily."

I just nodded, sullenly. I know she was referring to Peter. It was harder done then said.

"I'm sorry, hun, but I don't think he's going to call back. He's an asshole for doing so, but you don't need people like that in your life, anyways."

But I needed Peter, more than anything. That's why it was so hard. Instead of telling Sam the truth, I had told her that I confessed my feelings for him and he ran off and got scared, and hadn't called me since.

I just nodded again.

She gave me a small, crooked, smile, and pulled me in for a tight embrace.

"Isn't that Spider-man?" The words coming out of Isaac's mouth sent butterflies throughout my body, and they exploded out of every opening. I looked to where Isaac pointed and saw Peter, perched on the corner of a building. When he saw us look over, he webbed away.

I couldn't tell if he was looking at us, it was hard to know with those big glassy eyes, but I hoped so.

Knowing he was inside that red-and blue splattered suit was the only thing that kept me sane.

And it was the only thing that would continue to.

* * *

_It was working, the whole plan. He had taken someone, once a week. Injected them with the serum. They hated him now, while they were chained to the wall in an abandoned apartment building, but they would worship him later, they were already starting too. He wanted to make their lives better, feel what he feels. _

_He would stalk them for a few days once he spotted them and then he would watch how they cope, how hard it was. He could relate to them._

_There was the blind guy, Rick Simmons. He was first. He may not have been deaf, but he was blind. Once he injected into him, he grew into some rabid animal, which was exactly what he wanted to happen. He chained him to the wall until he could control himself, and when he did, he started to bow down to Dr. Hendrix. He had his eyesight back, wasn't that what ever blind person wished for?_

_Next, was Diana Springfield, a young lady who was sustained to a wheelchair. She went through the same process as Rick, but in the end she was alright._

_After that, it was Ben, who was also deaf, Linden, who was a cancer patient at the local hospital, and Cameron, who was some random beat-up kid living on the streets. _

_Hendrix was starting an army, not only against Taylor, but now Oscorp itself. Oscorp was evil. It felt good this power. All this power. He craved it, and now he was just satisfying his cravings._

_He was running out of the serum though, and he would need some extra doses for his new pack._

_Pack._

_He laughed at that word, but it made sense._

_They were after all injecting themselves with wolf DNA._

_He was trying to keep himself undercover ever since his massacre at Times Square. He needed some way to find David, but he had no idea how to in a big city like New York. Didn't he take a leave of absence? He wouldn't know. _

_He needed access to files, all of the... He needed to get into Oscorp, get the serum, get Intel on David, and get out. He just needed to figure out how._

* * *

It was about a week and a half until Christmas, and I hadn't even started Christmas shopping. I only needed to buy for my mom, dad, and Sam, but I also felt the need to buy something for Peter and May, but I may never see them again.

After going in numerous stores, the only thing I found was a ridiculously expensive make up set for Sam. I would have to go shopping again for my parents, because it was getting late now.

I headed to my parents apartment next, because they had prepared dinner for us 3 and Sam, who was meeting me there.

I found myself lost in thoughts about what was for dinner, or what to buy for Christmas, when a rock hard body slammed right into me. I went tumbling onto the ground, feeling like my shoulder broke.

The person didn't stop to help, just looked at me with these piercing eyes… It took me a few seconds to realize they were red eyes.

His eyes were red.

Like blood.

I felt a scream manifest itself inside of me, but instead of releasing it, it just sat perched underneath my tongue.

The scruffy-looking man glared, and then fast-walked the other way.

I didn't get up for a while, I just stared at the ripped tears in the man's jacket as he walked away from me.

I stood up after the groans and rude remarks about me sitting there.

I stumbled towards my parents apartment, clutching my shoulder.

When I made it there, my parents opened the door with happy faces, but I couldn't stop thinking about those piercing red eyes… They wouldn't leave my head.

"Emma, you alright?" Sam called over the dinner table.

I nodded, without looking over to her.

"Is your shoulder alright, hunny?" My mom asked, placing a warm hand on it.

I flinched, but nodded, eyes on the floor.

From my peripheral, I saw my father shrug to Sam. They were probably talking about me. Usually I would care, but not today. For once, my mind was on someone other than Peter.

I kept seeing that man's face in my mind. He looked familiar, but I just couldn't pinpoint it. Maybe I didn't know him, but he sure looked like someone I knew, at least. It eat me up inside, that I couldn't find the relation between this man and someone in my life. I would find out one day.

My hand remained on my other shoulder for the remainder of dinner, only when I needed to use my knife did I release it.

"So Emily, how is that Peter boy? You haven't spoken about him much, lately."

It was an instant pang in my chest, hearing his name. But like all the other times, I had to ignore it, leaving an empty, numb, feeling behind.

I heard Sam cough abnormally loud, trying to get everyone but mine's attention. She shook her head at my mother as she chew on a mouthful of chicken.

My mother widened her eyes, realizing, and then bowed her head t her food.

It was silent for the next few minutes, until Sam spoke. "Ahem," She coughed, "I have some news."

"Do tell, Sam!" My father urged.

Sam smiled, "I got a job,"

I spat out a small lump of chicken that was previously stored in my cheek, like a hamster. Luckily, it fell to my plate.

Sam's eyes widened, "What the…"

"You?" I asked, "You got a job? I mean, no offense or anything, but I don't think you've ever had a job in your life!"

She just frowned, but then shrugged, knowing I was right. "It's just a small job, doing office work and stuff. Two or three times a week."

"Where?" My mother asked.

"Oscorp," She grinned.

I nodded, "That's pretty impressive."

She nodded, grin still smeared on her face, "I'm working at the front desk, sorting through all the files and things. It's not a big job, at all really. I'm like the secretary's assistant, I do work that she can't finish in her shift."

I nodded, a small smile starting to form on my lips. "Well I'm happy for you, Sam. That's awesome."

"Thanks," She replied, "I start tomorrow." She dropped her fork to her plate, finishing her meal.

"What time?"

She pulled out her phone, looking at an email or a text or something. "My shift is from 5:00pm to 10:00pm."

I nodded, smiling.

After dinner, Sam and I washed up the dishes, her drying, me washing. We drove back to our apartment around eleven.

I did my nightly rituals, and hopped into my pajamas. But, before jumping into bed, I took a quick look at my shoulder.

It was completed smeared in purple and blue.

Had that man actually hit me with such great force? It was almost insane to think. He would have had to be going as fast as a car. He wasn't a big man, either, so it didn't make sense. I covered up my arm and ran to my room.

I was in bed by 11:30pm.

But I couldn't sleep.

The red eyes continued to haunt me.

* * *

_Dr. Hendrix watched the young female enter the building like he had done so for the past few days. The access key to ever room in the building hung from her tiny neck. All he had to do was yank it off, if she put up a fight, he could easily snap her neck like a twig. But not here, not now. He had to wait till her shift finished, at 10:00. He would stalk her, waiting underneath the stairs like a predator, ready to snatch its prey._

_His claws tapped against the ground impatiently. For some reason, the last time he injected himself, the claws had remained, instead of disappearing like the rest of his wolvely like features. His arm was partially hairy, with five giant claws protruded from his fingers._

_It felt like forever until nightfall hit, but when it did, she reluctantly came out, access key hung from her neck._

_He retreated from the darkness underneath the stairs, and walked towards the girl, faster and faster. He grasped her with his human arm, and pulled her back towards the building._

_She shrieked at first, causing the attention of by passers, but he shook his head, telling her to stop._

_She looked too petrified to scream now, the fear in her eyes was almost overwhelming. He pulled her towards the front doors, and into the nicely heated building. _

_"__What do you—"_

_"__Shut up." He spat through his teeth._

_There was hardly anyone here, now. Almost everyone had left, except for a janitor or two and a few late night scientists determined to figure some equation out No one would hear her screams, though._

_He gazed around the tall, 100 floored building. It had been a while since he'd been here. He had lost his access key, and his job probably too. Everyone suspected he was dead, just like they suspected the other missing person's were. But we weren't._

_He pressed his claws into the arch of the young girls back, like a threatening gun. Only his claws were worse. I bullet would be pleasant to die by._

_"__I need access to files."_

_"__I-I can't do that."_

_He pressed his claws deeper into her, just pricking the skin and shredding little holes in her white blouse._

_"__Okay!" She cried, "Okay…"_

_They leisurely strolled to the front desk, and she typed in her name, Samantha Evans, and a password typed too fast even for his eyes._

_She slid the keyboard to him, giving him access to everything he wanted. He typed in the name David Taylor, and printed everything they had on him, from birth to present._

_"__Y-You're that guy, aren't you?"_

_He turned to the young lady. She was quite beautiful, really. She would make a lovely asset to his team._

_"__You're the missing Doctor."_

_"__Ha," He scoffed, ignoring her words, although that gave her an answer._

_"__Why are you searching Mr. Taylor?"_

_He exited all his tabs, and logged out of Samantha's account._

_"__Are you acquainted with Mr. Taylor?" He asked, taking each paper from the printer and slipping it into his ripped pockets._

_"__N-No." She lied. He could hear the stutter of her heartbeat._

_"__You're lieing." He frowned._

_"__N-No. I swear." She closed her eyes, tears falling._

_"__Come on," He said, grabbing the last page and grasping her arm. "Let's go."_

_"__Where are we g-going now?" She whimpered._

_He pressed his hand to her back once again, and pushed her to the elevator. He pressed number 64, and the elevator flew upwards._

_When they made it to the floor a few seconds later, he pushed her out of it, leaving deeper claw marks. She winced in pain, yelping._

_He groaned, waiting for her to stand up again. When she didn't he raised his voice, "GET UP."_

_She did, crying, and clutched to the wall for support._

_They circled the floor, making their way to the experimental part of the building._

_This was where she was __**really **__needed. "Open the door," He pointed to the key card slot._

_She shook her head, "I-I…"_

_"__OPEN THE DOOR."_

_"__I can't!" She burst out. "I only have a card to the office parts of the building, I'm only allowed key cards to lab's when they require me to deliver a message!"_

_"__No." He breathed "No… NO NO NO NO!" _

_Samantha backed up, afraid of his actions. He growled, feeling the inner wolf come out in him, but it was painful. He needed the serum, and he needed it now. It was like a cure, a savior. He was addicted. He wrapped his hand around her neck and watched her gasp for air. When he felt pleased with her suffering, he yanked the key card off her neck, dropping her to the ground._

_She was lying. She had to be lying. _

_But no._

_When he swiped the card, ERROR appeared in bright red letters._

_Again and again he swiped, ERROR reappeared over and over._

_"__NOOOOO" He screamed._

_This was it. He had to get in, grab the serum, cook it in the serum cooker, and then inject himself with it so he could run out of there before the cops arrived, and hopefully before the famous Spider-man did too._

_His large hand lunged through the metal doors. It only left a dent, because these doors were made out of the strongest material known to man. He lunged again, managing to tear through it a little. As expected, the alarms blared throughout the floor. He had approximately five minutes before the cops arrived._

_He lunged, over and over, until a hole formed big enough for him to squeeze through. It was hard doing this with one strong hand._

_He grabbed Samantha, pulling her through the broken doors. He might need her for later._

_She just sobbed uncontrollably on the floor, repeating the words "I'm going to die… I'm going to die…"_

_Dr. Hendrix walked towards the locker with his name on it. He ripped open the lock, revealing the last known serum he had, it wasn't completed yet, but it would be._

_He took the blue liquid over to the cooker and set it for two minutes. When it was done, he would take it to the multiplier, so he would have enough serums to last him for a while._

_The two minutes past, and he could hear the police sirens in the distant. But that didn't stop him. He grabbed the blue serum, and placed it in the multiplier. It would take around 3 minutes, which just might have been enough time to obtain them and get out._

_"__TWO MORE MINUTES" The automated female voice said._

_"__Come on…" he growled._

_There was a shuffling sound, and then a clear of the throat. Someone had come through the window. He had cocked his head just slightly enough to see the red and blue suit in his peripheral._

_"__Spider-man…" Samantha cried, which confirmed his suspicion._

_"__What did one wolf say to the other?" Spider-man asked, hopping into the room._

_Hendrix didn't answer. He just growled a little under his breath, watching the machine._

_"__Howl's it going!"_

_Hendrix snapped, growling at the boy._

_"__Wait wait, I got more," Spider-man pranced around the room like he was nothing. But he was so much more powerful than that, at least he felt he was… "What did the wolf say when someone stepped on his foot?"_

_"__ONE MORE MINUTE"_

_He tried to ignore Spider-man but he could just feel his presence all around him. He lurked behind him as he cracked mocking jokes. "Aoooooooooooooooowww!" He howled._

_A roar erupted from his throat and he whipped around, dropping a claw to Spider-man. But he was already on the ceiling, perched their so effortlessly. Spider-man was ruining his plan. He was ruining everything._

_"__I can go forever man, I got all night," He shrugged._

_"__SERUM COMPLETE." The machine beeped, and he went to grab the tray of serum. He could probably carry all 3 and there were 15 serum's in each tray._

_"__Oh no you don't," Spider-man objected._

_He felt his arm resist, but he wasn't controlling it. A stucky substance surrounded his arm, and he turned to see Spider-man shoot another sticky web at his feet._

_If it weren't for his claws, he wouldn't be able to escape this situation. He ripped the web around his feet, and the one from his hand. Another one reappeared, tying his two wrists together like cuffs. Spider-man dropped to the floor with graced, and skipped over to Hendrix._

_"__I'll take this, thank you very much." He grabbed a tray of the blue serum, and started for the doors._

_Hendrix managed to rip through the webbing and he sprinted over to Spider-man, grabbing his ankle and dragging him against the white tiled floor_

_The tray of elixir smashed, blue liquid running everywhere._

_"__NOOO!" He screamed, trying to pile it together. _

_The cops were here now, and he would have to take just the two trays. He would come back for more later, or find some way to replicate it._

_He grabbed the trays, hopped oer Spider-man, and sprinted down the stairs._

_He was fast, but Spider-man was much, much faster. He webbed down the stairs, sticking to the ceiling and the wall like some sort of acrobat. _

_Serum's fell, smashing as he went down each flight of stairs.  
Spider-man tried to shoot webs at the tray, but his grasp was too tight on it. HE managed to swing one or two off everytime he attached a web to it though._

_The alarms blared through his ears. It was so loud, it almost made him wish he was death again. When he made it to the tenth floor, he was stuck in a hard rock. Down another three flights were the police, behind him was Spider-man. _

_He took a chance and shoulder-checked the nearest door, bursting onto the tenth floor. The janitor was there, looking as if he was just clearing up the last of this floor._

_He moved out of Dr. Hendrix's way as he sprinted to the nearest window. He smashed it with his half-transitioned arm, and leapt out the window injecting himself with the serum as he fell._

_By the time he reached the ground, he was strong enough to live through the pain of the impact. It was still hurtful, but bearable. He felt himself transform. His clothes teared, his face contorted, and he ran, feeling his legs strengthen with every step._

_Hair burst from every open crevasse of epidermis._

_He felt powerful._

_He had longed for this feeling, missing it for the past two days. He felt amazing, replenished, euphoric, reborn. _

_It was good to be back._

_He was sprinting faster probably quicker than any other time in his life. There was no possible way Spider-man could catch up._

_He took a quick glance back to make sure, and sure enough, nothing was there except the blaring of alarms, police lights, and a small crowd that had formed even this late at night._

_When he got back to his base camp, the abandoned partment, hedropped the tray, counting the remainder of serum's._

_17._

_That's all he had left._

_No thanks to Spider-man._

_Spider-man would pay for this. Everyone would pay. Everyone who got in his way, that is._

_On the bright side, he still had David Taylor's papers. He would have to dig, do some researching. He was going to find a way to take him down, and Oscorp. This was it. This was the end of Oscorp and every employee in that building. He was fueled with hatred at this company because of what they had done. They had killed his sister over human-testing. His own sister. And it was time for revenge because he now had the power to do so._

_He would even go after Norman Osborn's son, Harry Osborn, , the possessor of Oscorp, if he had to._

_But first, he would have to take down Spider-man. And if that meant killing him, so be it._

_He had a team behind him. A whole pack. They would do whatever he said._

_Spider-man was no good. _

_Max Dillon may have not been able to take down Spider-man, but Jonathon Hendrix certainly could._

* * *

It felt so good to have Sam back in my arms. A wounded, petrified Sam, but it was Sam. I hugged her, not wanting to let her go. It was a terrifying night, and I felt so bad for her because she was in the middle of it all.

She just sobbed on my shoulder, as I clutched her tight, watching my parents observe us over her shoulder.

I was surprised when Spider-man walked out of the building behind Sam. He pointed towards me, leading her in the right direction, but he didn't follow her. He didn't even walk over to say 'Hi', or fake something in front of Sam and say, 'Is this your sister? She's safe now' or something like that to me. Instead, he jumped in the air, slung a web to the side of a building, and swung off into the night.

I had to shake it off, like I usually did, more so now because he was dressed as his alter ego.

I winced as Sam clung to me, due to my bruised shoulder, but withstood the pain for the sake of my best friend.

When we got home at 3:00 am, via my parent's car, we went straight to bed.

I was so ready for bed, but by the time my head hit the pillow, I couldn't find the will to sleep. Instead, I lay there, staring at my blank, white ceiling.

The texture of it made me ponder. I made shapes in my mind, like someone would do in the daytime with clouds.

I had just seen a flower, when suddenly the ceiling contorted, transforming and swirling into a familiar, but dreadful shape.

It was the eyes, the red eyes. They stared back at me, piercing into my soul. This was impossible… How was I seeing this? I must have been high or something.

A mouth started to manifest, and then a nose. The lips of the mouth snarled upward.

When the lips opened, dagger-like teeth were revealed.

The teeth lunged for me, and I let out a blood-curdling scream.

* * *

**A/N: I'm so sorry for the long update! But your reviews are still making my day. They are the only thing that keeps me writing, like I say every time. I just want you guys to know how much they mean to me! Please keep them up. I apologize for the extremely choppy and probably horribly grammatical written chapter. I had a huge case of writers block but wanted to get this update to you guys asap. I might end up rewriting it but for now, enjoy. Thanks for reading and reviewing :)**


	9. Chapter 9

"EMMA, EMMA!" My body shook with such force, it almost felt like I wasn't doing it. I kept my eyes closed, fearful of what I would open them too. I felt no pain, but that could just be the adrenaline. Was I dieing? No.

"EMMA!" The words echoed through me.

The voice was familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint it. The tone was comforting.

I kept shaking, violently.

Soft whimpers escaped my lips as I rocked myself back and forth.

"EMMA!" I felt my body shake once more, before I finally opened my eyes. I gasped, taking a sharp intake of breath when I saw my best friend's face. Her eyes were filled with worrisome. Her arms were pressed tightly on my shoulders, sending a sharp shot of pain through my arm on my bruised shoulder.

My heart was pounding so fast, I almost thought Sam could hear it.

The sweat drenched sheets held me to my bed like a prisoner.

I observed my surroundings only to figure out that I was still just in my weary bedroom, minus the face on the ceiling.

I tried to catch my panting breath, but it seemed impossible. I could feel the air repeatedly being sucked from my lungs.

"You're okay! Are you okay? I hope you're okay." My best friend hugged me, squishing my face into her chest.

"What happened?" I panted.

"Nightmare? I don't know! I just heard you scream and ran in here!"

I kept trying to catch my shaky breath as Sam hugged me. "It was so vivid."

"You're okay," She reassured, "I promise you're okay."

I wiped the tears from eyes (which must have formed when I let out a earsplitting scream) and wrapped an arm around my best friend.

I was literally soaked in sweat. Like I had bathed in it.

"Come on," Sam stood up and tugged at my wrist. She lead me to the bathroom and ordered me to sit down. I obliged, still trembling.

I felt cold, although the sweat revealed differently. She grabbed a cloth from underneath the counter and soaked it in cold water. She pressed it lately to my forehead, cooling my face down, also wiping the sweat. The chill of the cloth sent me in shivers, but I tried my best to ignore it.

When I had calmed down enough to talk properly, I told her about my dream. I told her about how I didn't even remember falling asleep, and how vivid it all felt.

"You were probably so tired you don't even remember your head hit the pillow."

I nodded, "Yeah… Yeah I guess. You think you would be having nightmares of wolves, since you were the one attacked."

She snickered slightly before putting the cloth back in the sink. "Come on," She helped me up, knowing I was still no capable of keeping myself standing. "Sleep in my bed tonight." She suggested.

I nodded and followed her to her room.

Even dimly lit, the fuscia pink in her room still hurt my eyes. I walked over to the side of the bed and lay in it, pulling all the sheets up to my chin, tucking them under it.

I was still shaking, and I felt bad about it. The whole bed was trembling because of me. But luckily my best friend overlooked it and just smiled to me as I clutched the blankets.

"Thank you," I whispered to her after a many seconds of silence, but she was already sound asleep.

* * *

I woke up the next morning and went straight to work. I was only running on a few hours of sleep but I sucked it up.

Sam was at the police station all morning answering questions, and I felt terrible for her. She had to relive the whole traumatic night.

Kat was pretty easy going today, she was even sympathetic. I suspected it was because she heard of what happened at Oscorp last night, and she knew Sam was my best friend so whatever petrified here, sure as hell scared the shit out of me too.

Clark was even nice. He offered to buy me a late on my break. I adequately rejected his offer, and sat at the break table. As expected, Spider-man's picture was sitting on the front page of the newspaper. And that's not what hurt most, what was even more heart-wrenching was seeing the little 'Photo taken by: Peter Parker' in the corner.

I observed the ehadline of the Newspaper.

**WOLVES IN NYC**

It was an odd title, but it was true.

God, I missed him.

I missed him so much, it killed me inside. As cliché as it was, I felt like a part of me was missing. Every time I thought of him I had this image of him leaving via my window and webbing off into the night.

I hated him for not returning my calls, I hated him for ignoring me last night, but I couldn't actually hate him. I couldn't. It was Peter.

Peter who had the most sincere, care-free smile. It was a contagious smile. I ached for it. That little crease he had in his forehead whenever he laughed at one of my stupid jokes was just completely adorable. And those eyebrows. Those bushy, ridiculous, but totally face-framing eyebrows. They just completed him. His shaggy brown hair suited him so well. It was perfect. He was perfect.

I needed to see him again, but I know he would do anything to avoid me, as much as he wanted to see me too. I hoped he wanted to see me…

After getting off of work three, I took a stroll down the busy street, a coffee in my hand. It was warm. It acted as gloves for my hand, considering I left mine at home.

I strolled along the streets, in the opposite direction of my apartment, and my parents, and towards – well- God knows where I was going. I just felt like walking.

I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched. I scanned my surroundings but no one was there, no one suspicious anyways. Everyone appeared to be doing last minute Christmas shopping, which is what I should have been doing. He-he.

I still couldn't shake the feeling. It was like a piercing gaze was set on my back. I looked all around, but everyone was just staring at their phones, or their kid, or their dog.

Just as I was about to ignore the penetrating stare, I caught a glimpse of red in my peripheral. I followed the red to see Spider-man, stuck to the side of an apartment building. He just sat there, watching. Was he watching me? I tried not to look. But I was giddy inside, to know he was looking out for me.

The sad part was: this was the closest I'd ever get to Peter again.

No.

No, it wouldn't be.

Not if I could help it.

I darted into the nearest store and started searching. For what? I don't know. Something Peter and May would like. Peter and I may not have been talking, we may never talk again. But I would try. I could at least talk to May. Peter never said anything about me talking to May.

I found the most beautiful bouquet of glass roses across the old antique store. They were beautiful, truly. They made a nice décor.

Without even looking at the price, I picked it up and handed to the cashier.

The total came to 15.95$. A total bargain. I walked out the store with a huge smile.

A half an hour later, I felt like screaming due to the frustration of not being able to find Peter a present. I didn't know if he'd ever open it, but I still wanted to get him something, to show I still care.

I was so stumped, until it caught my eye.

It sat in the window practically calling my name. My eyes lit up when I saw it. It was perfect.

It sat in the middle of the display in the skate shop. It had wheels that were probably super expensive and the black board was simple, but the design underneath was so intriguing. It was a spider, red and blue like his logo, but it also had a psychedelic aspect to it.

It was the _perfect _skateboard.

It was so him.

I ran in there, practically tearing it from the display (After ignoring the cashier's yells at me, might I add) and dropped it on the front counter.

"I **need **this."

"I'm sorry ma'am." The cashier said. He tilted his hat closer to the side and looked me in the eyes, "That's not on sale till next month. It's the only one we have and it's for the window display. You can pre-order it like everyone else has though."

"No." I shook my head, my long blonde hair flailing all over me. "You don't understand. I seriously **need **this."

"Ma'am I'm sorry but—"

"I will pay you double the price." I pleaded.

"Ma-"

"Please!"

"Just give her the bloody board!" I heard someone in the back yell. "Double the price, that's 222$!" I cringed at the price, but was still so determined.

"U-uh okay." The cashier licked his lips, and grabbed the board from my hands.

He rang the board up, and I hesitated as I handed over the money.

All in all, it was a good buy. I had got Peter's present. He better frickin' open it because I spent a shit load of money on it.

I asked for an extra bag, wrapping the board in it.

I was scared Spider-man was lurking somewhere I couldn't see. He could see through the first bag, but no way the double bag.

I walked out into the cold air, and sipped the last luke-warm drop of my coffee, tossing it into the garbage.

By the time I got home, via the subway, I couldn't wait to wrap them up.

But how the hell did you wrap a skate-board?

After fiddling with it for a while, I put it in an old cardboard box and wrapped it in that. The Disney's frozen wrapping paper made me giggle, imagining Peter opening it, tearing through Olaf and Elsa's face.

I taped up every opening and then shoved the enormous wrapped presents in a plastic bag.

Now: to deliver.

Do I do it today?

On Christmas day?

Who am I kidding? I couldn't wait…

I packed my bag, took a last check in the mirror to tidy myself in case Peter was home, and headed out my apartment.

By the time I got to the subway, my plastic bag was starting to rip, due to the enormous amount of weight in the bag.

"Urrrg." I groaned, and wrapped my arms around the items. I prayed there was a seat for me to sit down on, but to my dismay, I was let down. I attempted to stand and hold on to the pole at the same time.

As I did this, I mused. Would Peter be home? I highly doubted it. It was getting late, and this was prime time for crime. He would be fighting and saving people and doing whatever it is he was.

I wished he would be there, but I didn't keep my hopes up because I knew there was a 99.9% chance he wouldn't be there.

I got off the subway minutes later and walked to Peter's house.

When I made it to house #36 I rapped lightly on the door, trying to juggle knocking, and holding the items up.

"Emily! Hello! Oh my, this is such a nice surprise." May opened the door with a huge grin.

"Hi!" I said, trying to keep up the presents with one of my leg, balancing with the other.

"Let me help you with that, I'll grab a bag—"

"Actually," I interrupted, "This is for you."

Her face lit up, and her smile made me smile. "That's so sweet dear!" She grabbed the presents, set them aside on the floor, and turned back to give me a quick hug.

Her warmth radiated off on her, comforting me.

"Did you want to come in for a bit?"

"Actually.. I- uh," I pointed behind me casually, "I have to, um. I got things to do, and stuff.."

"That's alright," She smiled, her cheeks flushing red. Before I knew it, she blurted out, "But you might as well say hello to Peter—PETER!" She called out.

"Shit…" I breathed, too low for her to hear. I love this woman but she did this on purpose. I didn't think he was home so I was quite surprised.

He came rushing down the stairs, one swift step after another.

"What Aunt May?" He practically reached the door before he finally looked up. "O-oh..." He stuttered, meeting my eyes.

I bit my lip, trying to keep the word-vomit behind my lips. There was so much I wanted to say, but there was nothing I said at all.

Booooy was this awkward.

May pushed her nephew out the door, and quietly locked the door behind him, leaving us in the dim light.

He rubbed the nape of his neck, avoiding eye contact.

"I miss you." I whispered.

"Huh?" He asked, finally meeting my eyes.

"I- uh... I miss you."I said a little louder, gazig down at my feet as I rocked back and forth on them to pass time.

"I miss you too, a lot. But u-um… how're you doing?"

I shut my eyes, not because I didn't want to look at him, but because I couldn't. I felt like breaking down inside. It killed me to hear him say that. I just shrugged, eyes still tightly shut.

I felt his eyes on me, just like earlier that day.

"Emily, I'm sorry about everything. I miss you. I truly do. But, just trust me. It's better this way."

I felt my eyes sting as they filled up with salty liquid. A felt a warm touch on my fore arm. "Em, I'm sor-"

I couldn't hear those words again.

I couldn't hear 'I'm sorry' again.

I pushed his arm off of me and urgently pivoted, trotting down the wooden steps. "I gotta go Pete. I-I'll see you later…" I fast-walked down the side walk feeling his eyes on my back like lasers. "Or never," I whispered, low enough that hopefully only I would hear it. Something told me that he might've heard it too, though.

God, Peter and I weren't even dating and it was like he was friend-zoning me, for different reasons of course. But he wasn't friend zoning me, because all we were before was friends before. It was like he was stranger-zoning me.

A few tears escaped the lids of my eyes as I rode the short subway ride home.

I was just stepping off of the subway, walking up a number of stairs, and wiping away a number of tears, when I heard an eruption of growls beside me. I looked to my left to see the pair of red, glowing eyes, hidden behind the dumpster in the alley way.

I lifted a hand to my mouth, covering any scream that was threatening to be let out.

This was the monster that had attacked my roommate.

I couldn't tell if he had seen me, so I just stood there.

I should have moved, I should have run, but I just froze. I just froze and my body went numb in response.

These were the eyes that had haunted and tormented my best friend and I these last few days. Luckily for me, it was only in my dreams and imagination, but now, I wasn't so lucky.

How in God's name was there no one around right now? It was New York City.

It became clear that the red eyes had spotted me, because there was a shuffling noise, a few cans fell, and then the red eyes grew bigger, nearing me.

I still couldn't run. It was like I couldn't control my body. My feet were firmly planted on the ground, and not by my choosing.

I tried to scream, but like the rest of me, I was paralyzed.

The eyes grew bigger and bigger, features started to manifest itself in the dark, and then finally, I was met face to face with the creature.

How was Peter not terrified of this creature? How could he make sarcastic jokes, and fight him off?

I could smell it's disgusting, wet, breath on my face.

I shut my eyes, bracing myself for death.

I was going to end up like the other missing people in New York City. This wouldn't be the last time anyone saw me, because tomorrow morning my face would be all over the news displayed as a missing person's report.

I clenched my fists together, ready for whatever was about to come, but relaxed when I heard the simple name, "Taylor."

Now I **know **he was talking about me.

"What?" I breathed, opening my wet eyes.

The beast bared its teeth at me. "You're Taylor's daughter."

"D-David Taylor?" I sniffled.

He nodded, his giant head moving up and down.

"I u-uh—"

"He did this to me."

"What?" I cocked my head, hardly seeing his gruesome face anymore because of the blurriness of my tears.

"HE DID THIS TO ME!" Spit came flying into my face, and I almost threw up when I smelled his rancid breath.

"How could my dad have possibly done this to you?"

"He was there in the lab that night." His voice was stern, and harsh. He grasped my arm, sensing that I was about to make a run for it. "He did this. He messed up."

That was when it came to me.

This was the man in the picture, with my father. It was Doctor Hendrix.

"Hendrix…" I said under my breath.

He cocked his head to the left, probably wondering why I knew his name.

"You broke into Oscorp the other night. You hurt my best friend." I was starting to put the pieces together now.

"Oscorp deserves whatever they get." He snarled.

"Why?" I asked. I was quite fond of Oscorp. They had considerable advanced our generation through the power of science.

"Let's just say, Oscorp has a habit of turning good people bad."

I couldn't argue with that.

I tried to slip out of his grasp, but it was no use.

"Don't even think about it." That voice did not come from him. I peered around his large, furried shoulders, to see another pair of red eyes, and another.

There were more…

"Holy shit…" I cried, "Holy shit!"

Goose bumps encompassed my body and I felt my heartbeat pound in my ears. A quick burst of adrenaline rushed through me and I managed to break free of the Doctor's grasp.

"NO," He growled with such fury that it frightened me so badly, I thought my heart restarted.

I started to make a run for it, when I felt a claw try to grab my right ankle.

I screamed in pain as I fell to the ground and felt the deep gashes left in my leg. My head hit the floor and I felt the blood ooze from a small scrap above my right eyebrow.

Hendrix dragged me along the floor, like something out of a horror movie. I tried to grasp the cement ground with my nails, digging them into whatever I could, but all I got was blood underneath my fingernails due to my viscous scrapes, attempting to save my own life.

"NO!" I screamed, hoping someone would hear me, "PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Like a prayer being answered, I heard a large shriek from the beast that held me captive, and then my leg was released.

I expected to see Spider-man, but instead there was a fragile woman standing at the entrance of the alley way with a few bloody knives in her hand.

She was a tall woman, but petite at the same time. She appeared to be very young. Her dark hair framed her face nicely and her business clothes completely contrasted with the blood stains on her blouse.

"I called the cops already," She said, running over to me. She helped me stand and walk out into the open street.

I stumbled to the curb of the sidewalk and planted my butt on it.

I wasn't hurt that badly. My leg, although it seemed pretty painful in the moment, was only left with five gashes twisting around my ankle.

My eyebrow bled due to the impact of my face head hitting the frozen floor, but that was it.

Nothing hospital-worthy.

Just a few first-aid rituals.

"Are you okay?" The woman asked, wrapping her teal jacket around me.

I nodded, "T-Thank you so much…"

She smiled, "No problem."

I still couldn't get over how odd it was for a woman like her to be carrying a purse full of knives. Either way, she saved my life.

"What's your name?"

"Felicia Hardy." The woman smiled. "Yours?"

"Emily Taylor." I looked to my feet, watching as the blood oozed out of my ankle.

"Oooooh." The woman made a realization, "That's why he wanted you."

"Hmm?"

"Your David's daughter."

I nodded, "How do you know him?"

"I worked at Oscorp."

I pursed my lips, "Oh." I tried to register everything that had just occurred. "So you know Dr. Hendrix?"

She nodded, "He's mad at your father for the lab accident that occurred a long time ago. I suspect he wouldn't be so mad if he hadn't injected wolf's DNA into him in an attempt to gain his hearing back."

The police sirens interrupted our conversation, along with the ambulance.

Immediately the paramedics began to examine me, taking me to their vehicle, wrapping my leg in a bandage, cleaning my forehead, asking me to rate my pain on a scale of one to ten.

Without delay, the police rushed over to me for questioning as soon as I departed the ambulance. I answered all their questions, confirming their suspicions of Johnathon Hendrix, and even told them that I thought the missing person's were caused by this man.

"How many eyes did you see?" The cop asked, flipping a page in his notebook.

"At least three or four."

"And was there anyone else on the scene with you?"

"J-Just at the end of the crime. A woman, Felicia Hardy."

"Is she still here? Can you point her out to me?"

"Please officer," I objected, "Can I go home now? I just want to go home." I was so dead tired, and this traumatic night would haunt me forever, so I might as well take whatever sleep I could get.

"Just one more question, then I'll ask you to come in for questioning another day."

I sighed, and scanned the crime scene. I saw four or five cops, two paramedics, a few bystanders, but no Felicia.

I shook my head, "She's not here. But she saved my life."

"How so?"

I sighed again, revealing my frustration.

The officer gave me a small smile, before digging in his pocket and pulling out a business card. He wrote something on it in blue ink, and then handed it over to me.

"Call this number tomorrow and ask for Officer Jared Clarke. We can set up an appointment to take you in for further questioning."

"Thank you," I smiled, truly thankful for this officer.

After standing there for another ten minutes, waiting for the officer and answering worried calls from my parents and Sam, the officer drove me home.

All I wanted was home right now.

I unlocked my apartment door, and I was instantaneously met with a pair of arms. "I'm so glad you're okay," Sam cried into my shoulder.

It was déjà vu. We were literally re-living last night, only it was Sam in the traumatic situation and at least then Spider-man had helped her.

I knew he probably was dealing with something else, or he hadn't heard the incident, I just wished it was him saving me instead of Felicia.

Sam clung to me for what seemed like an eternity before finally letting me go and get ready for bed.

I didn't even bother brushing my teeth or taking off my makeup. I literally hopped into bed, only taking off my pants before I did so.

I groaned at the pain of my ankle as it hit the surface of my bed, but ignored it.

It was only a matter of time before I closed my eyes, consciousness gradually drifting away from my grasp.

At around 3:00am that night, a rapping noise on my window woke me.

"Ughh…" I groaned, rolling over to get a view of what it was.

It took a good minute for my pupils to dilate, focusing on the shapes around me. I almost fell back to sleep, until I heard the taps again.

My body instantly tensed up when I eyes focused to see Peter crouching on my fire escape.

His eyes locked with mine, his big, beautiful, brown eyes.

What do I do? I couldn't fake going back to sleep now…

I ripped off my covers and planted my feet to the ground. I tried to compose my nerves before cautiously walking towards the window and unlatching it.

He let himself in, pushing the window open and tumbling through.

He was dressed in his usual red and blue uniform, only his mask was off.

I just gave him a doleful stare, not knowing what to do. Why wasn't he saying anything? He came here. I clutched my forearm with my other hand, dropping my gaze.

When his crushing, lean, muscular, body encompassed mine, the warmth instantaneously made me melt into him. His arms tightened around me, forcing me into him.

I finally accepted the hug, wrapping my arms around his body.

I was so glad he was hugging me right now. I didn't know if I could take it any longer.

Peter had walked into my life only a little while ago, and now I don't think I could live without him in it.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't take it anymore." He mumbled into my messy bed head. "I'm sorry about not being there for you tonight. I had no idea. There was a gun fight downtown and I wasn't even listening into the police radio. Next think I know, I see a police car driving you home."

Instead of saying anything I clutched him closer.

"I hate not being with you."

I just nodded, knowing that he knew I felt the same way. It was hard for me to find my words right now. I was just so stunned he was here. Part of me wanted him to stay, to never leave again, but the other part of me wished he had never came at all. What was I going to do the next time he left?

"Are you okay?" He released me, but kept his hands planted on my shoulders, squeezing them a little.

Was I okay? Of course I wasn't. The boy I liked was crushing me… It was killing me. And on top of that, I got attacked by a giant wolf which had previously attacked my best friend as well. Who, not to mention, was out on a murder spree to acquire my father and take down Oscorp. I just sullenly shook my head, avoiding any eye contact with him.

"What's wrong?"

My lips tightened into a line. I licked them. "You can't keep doing this Peter…"

"Doing what?"

"You know what." I folded my arms, taking a step back from him. "You just keep entering and exiting my life. You can't just do that. You know how much it sucks seeing you all over the news? I see you everywhere, but I can't physically talk to you. And whenever you get closer to me, I'm the happiest girl in the world but I know that you'll leave me again. I know this may just be the lack of sleep talking right now, but it's how I feel."

He sighed.

"It sucks, Peter."

"Em—"

"Just make a choice."

"What?"

"Make a choice. Do you want me in your life or not, Peter? Because I can't live like this, waiting for you to show up at my window at two o'clock in the morning."

"You can't just ask me to make a choice… Not right now. I need time to think."

"Well I am asking. Choose Peter."

"I- I don't kn—"

"You know what?"

Peter's eyes were filled with confusion. That was what I was hoping for. I had to find some way to get through to him, some way to make him never leave again. I had to try a different tactic.

"You don't get a choice." I stabbed his chest with my bloody finger.

"What do you mean?"

"You can't get rid of me, Pete." Tears pooled in my eyes, and they weren't sad tears, they were angry ones that threatened to spill over. "Okay? You can't. This is my choice. You always push me away. I can't do this anymore. I'm sick of it. Just let me in Peter." I snapped. "I know you're scared because of what happened to Gwen, but I don't care. I'm here, Pete, and I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with me. If something ever happened to me, I wouldn't be mad, or depressed, I'd be happy. It would be a privilege to die for you. So Peter, I'm begging you. Please." I took a step closer to him, moving over the invisible boundary that lay between us. "Let. Me. In."

I could see the internal dilemma inside him. The pained expression said it all. I had proposed that he chooses not to leave and I hoped, prayed, that he wouldn't push me away again. I don't know if I could take it again. His lips tightened, showing a whiteish color, and his downcast eyes finally rose to meet me. His eyes squinted shut, revealing a roguish look, and then he took a step towards me.

His hands grabbed the side of my face, and I found our heads moving closer.

His lips moved to mine and a fluttery feeling exploded throughout me. Our lips moved in unison and I finally, finally, felt like the wall he held up had been broken down into miniscule rubble. He had finally let me in. He had made his choice.

When our lips parted, we were both gasping for air.

Instead of saying anything, he pulled me in for another big bear hug, toppling us over on my bed.

"I'm sorry…" He whispered in my ear, the words rolling off his tongue like velvet. His lips pressed against my forehead. "I'm sorry. I won't push you away anymore. I thought I was helping you," he explained, "but really I was just adding these layers of guilt in order to take more off. In the act of trying to protect you I now realize I was doing the exact opposite. I became selfish. I'm so sorry. I came to the conclusion that you getting hurt doesn't really have anything to do with me either. Dr. Hendrix wants your dad, and he's going through you to get him."

"How do you know?"

"I just read the police file and did some eavesdropping… but that doesn't matter. What matters to me is you that you're safe. You need me to protect you."

My pained tears took a transformation for the better. The now joyful tears sprung from my eyes like a sink faucet. I just clutched him closer to me, fisting his shirt to get as much of him as I can.

I breathed in his musky scent and closed my eyes.

"I'll never leave again."

Whether his promise was genuine or not, I didn't care. He was here, and that was what mattered.

Peter had finally let me in.

**A/N: Yay for quick updates! Thanks for your guys' feedback. It means a lot. I hope you enjoy this chapter more then the last. Thanks again, R&R!**


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